Weeds, Flowers – detail 

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           The core of the installation House for a Rhino is a fragmented body that seems to be searching for ways to reassemble itself. The artist collects phantasms and imaginings related to the mechanics of desire, presenting the results of these explorations in a fragmented form that resists clear interpretation, diagnosis,or framing. Using forms reminiscent of nets, membranes, and phallic prosthses, Branas constructs a narrative about identity in a state of continuous formation and transformation. Within his work, a tension emerges between matter and desire – fleeting interactions between the properties of juxtaposed substances create ephemeral

configurations whose meanings remain suspended in the realm of specultion. One of the materials used is powdered rhinoceros horn, traditionally employed as an aphrodisiac – a substance embodying notions of strength, potency, and loss.

A historical point of reference for the work is Albrecht Dürer’s Rhinoceros (1515),an image of an animal the artist never actually saw. This “phantasm of nature” returns here as a metaphor for fragmented perception, desire, and uncertainty. The rhinoceros becomes a figure of split longings, fleeting passions, and doubt, but also a symbol of the tension between the human being and the surrounding world – a story of exhaustion and the search for a new form of existence.

Learning from the Rhino

a graphic print showing a human-rhinoceros hybrid, where a prosthetic imitating a large rhinoceros nose grows out of the man's nose

– a rhinoceros horn.

size 15x10cm 

Boy: detail

Rhino head placed in a woven net made of cable covers with a cucumber dildo nose

a sketch of a head made of cable covers

A Man Staring at a Rhino, detail

detail:

woven cable covers with glass dildo bananas

installation view

House for The Rhino

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