In 2014 I visited Madagascar where I met some Indri. Indri are the world's largest lemurs. Upon my return I was asked to be involved in ONCA Gallery's '100' exhibition. This took 100 artists, 100 works of art, all at 20 x 20cm, sold for £100 each and on display for 100 hours. The money raised was to buy 100 trees to be planted in and around Brighton and Hove.
I chose my experience with the Indri to bring this idea to an artwork. The one thing the struck me about the Indri was just how much their hands were like ours - us, both primates, yet worlds apart. Were we really that different? The frame was from sustainable British Ash, scorched to symbolise the damaging 'slash & burn' techniques used on land in Madagascar. The rose pink colour was for the illegally felled rosewood trees, worth so much money abroad that the Malagasy folk who cut them down risk their lives to do so, and never see the profits the wood makes overseas.
I've always pondered over this image - the Indri, with his primate hand so like my own, reaching down - was he asking for help... or offering it?
