Display animal excrement to raise awareness about their future

2023-10-20 09:14:21

EFE (GUILLERMO GARRIDO)

London

Updated Friday, October 20, 2023 – 09:14

Tracey Lee, zologist and artist, exhibits in “The Origin of Feces” her collection of defecations, all odorless, collected over decades

Tracey Lee at the exhibition “The origin of feces.”GUILLERMO GARRIDO | EFE

Love and longing for her animals led former zookeeper Tracey Lee to collecting their excrement for decades to today display it in an artistic way with the intention of raising awareness about its sustainability in The Origin of Feces.

“I usually compare them to cakes, maltesers (chocolate balls) or raisins with chocolate, something quite extravagant,” Lee, a zoologist and artist, explains to Efe, and this is how she presents her collection of animal feces exhibited at the Fusebox cultural center in Kingston upon Thames, on the banks of the Thames in London.

In conical display cases, transparent urns or hanging on a canvas with its corresponding lighting, more than a hundred -all odorless- They are exhibited like works of art until the end of October.

It all started when the London Zoo, where he works, decided in the 1990s to move some elephants and rhinos to give them more space, he explains.

“It was a pretty sad moment for me,” explains Lee, who cared for them for twelve years, especially Gita (the last elephant to leave) and Johs (black rhinoceros).

‘The last poops at the Zoo’

At her farewell, some of her excrement was lying on the ground and she thought that “it’s all we have left,” as she recalls, so she I decided to take them, dry them and “unite them on a canvas under the name The Last Poops at the Zoo, and the hung on the wall of his bathroom.

Exhibit animal excrement to raise awareness about their future.GUILLERMO GARRIDO | EFE

Ah, among the disparity of opinions of friends, family and guests, “it was always a topic of conversation, “Everyone laughs”and decided to “collect the excrement of all the animals I worked with,” says Lee.

When collecting the feces, one of the things that surprised him the most was that of the gorilla: “They are absolutely extraordinaryse They look like a giant kebabeveryone who sees it screams, screams or bursts out laughing,” describes the caregiver.

His favorites are those of the buffalo, although the difficulty of obtaining them stands out. “I have learned a lot about the best ways to dry excrement,” in which the use of glue is essential, up to three layers, to eliminate odor and maintain its natural shine.

“I think people find it really interesting to see the material so closely,” says the zologist, and her guest book attests to this: “The best exhibition in the world!”, you can read on one of its pages.

“Tell a story about the planet and animals”

Among its biggest supporters are school groups: “I’ve been impressed with their questions, even when you can’t answer them. It really sticks in their minds.”

Beyond entertainment, behind this unique exhibition lies the desire to “tell a story about the planet and animals with whom we share the Earth and its difficult situation,” says Lee, and for this each defecation has its descriptive note.

These texts detail “what is the threat (suffering)if it is due to the destruction of their habitat, due to pollution in the oceans…”.

“When you look at the excrement and read the card, you can internalize and understand that that animal is in critical danger”, says Lee, in a call to society to act. “It’s all about us, the reason these animals are in danger is because of us.”