Endangered animals take a seat at Faneuil Hall
Published 12 March
Sheena Mitti and her father, Ronald, were visiting Boston from Uganda when they stumbled upon a statue of an elephant, rabbit and dog sitting on a bench at Faneuil Hall Marketplace. Sheena was instantly drawn to the elephant, and Ronald snapped a photo of her in front of it.
For the Mittis, the fight for endangered animals is real — they see it every day. The benches made Sheena think of elephants she sees in Uganda.
“It’s bittersweet,” Sheena said. “They’re becoming more endangered."
The Wild Benches of Hope – three bronze benches featuring animals across Faneuil Hall Marketplace – is a public art exhibit meant to bring people face to face with endangered wildlife. Married British-Australian artists Gillie and Marc Schattner created the exhibit in collaboration with Zoo New England.
The benches feature Gillie and Marc’s characters Rabbitwoman and Dogman seated alongside endangered animals – a Masai giraffe, an African elephant and a hippo. The figures are reading and drinking tea. Visitors can sit on the benches and touch the animals.
The couples’ work was deeply influenced by living in Africa, where the two became conservationists and naturalists, Marc said. For Gillie, it started when she was 9 and saw an elephant shot by a poacher in Zambia, where she lived until she was 12. Marc studied with famed primatologist Jane Goodall, working with the chimpanzees in Tanzania as soon as he turned 18, inspired by a documentary he had seen four years earlier.
The two met later in life, and decided to merge their activism with their art and spread their message to places where people can’t see endangered animals.
“Once you actually make a connection with wildlife, it's there for the rest of your life,” Marc said. “You want to join charities, and you want to donate, and you want to do what you need to do to keep the planet healthy.”
The couple, who are based in Sydney, travel to Africa every year. In Australia they are deeply influenced by the animals around them, whether that’s kangaroos, wombats, wallabies or snakes. But they both said it is important for their art to focus on endangered animals, which is why they spend so much time in Africa studying and sketching animals, so they can figure out how to “bring them to light so they are real,” Gillie said.
Public art is free, exposes the artist's message to anyone who walks by and doesn’t require anyone to go to a gallery to experience it. The Wild Benches of Hope are nestled in the heart of downtown Boston, where tourists and people working in the financial district pass them every day. On the benches, there’s space next to Rabbitwoman and Dogman so people can sit there and “get to feel that they are close to those animals,” Gillie said.
The exhibit is different from a gallery space where people are not allowed to touch the art.
“If you can go to work and you can put a smile on your face, that makes a big difference to the rest of your day,” Marc said.
Gillie said it’s important for animals to be whimsical and hopeful while they are spreading their serious message, which is why they have them drinking tea or reading a book.
Installed in December, the benches will remain there for a year.
While locals may have become used to seeing the bronzed animals on benches, the exhibit has been a hit with tourists.
Nathalia Riordon, who works with children in a library in Canada, said the exhibit caught her eye because it looks like it could fit in a library.
“The childish imagination makes it humanized,” Riordon said.
