Charlotte Dumas
Fw:Books
Entendue by Charlotte Dumas forms part of an ongoing project examining the historical and cultural presence of elephants within human societies. Working primarily in black and white, Dumas photographs elephants in zoos across the Netherlands and Japan, situating the animals within carefully observed environments.
The project draws on both personal memory and historical research. As a child, Dumas frequently visited the zoo in Rotterdam with her father, sketching elephants together. Near the end of his life, when he was living with Alzheimer’s disease, they returned for one final visit. The drawings from that encounter, abstract and direct, became an important point of reference for the work.
From this starting point, Dumas traces the journeys of two historically documented elephants. One is Hansken, brought from Sri Lanka to the Netherlands in 1633 and later depicted by Rembrandt van Rijn. The other is a white elephant believed to have been portrayed by the Japanese artist Itō Jakuchū in the eighteenth century.
Through these interwoven narratives, Entendue reflects on the complex relationships between humans and animals, as well as the role of images in shaping how those relationships are remembered. The photographs emphasise presence and attention, suggesting a quieter mode of encounter between species.
