RUN FOR YOUR LIFE

In 2014 Gillie and Marc were invited by Federation Square in Melbourne to create an artwork for their Creative Program. The artists decided to use it as a platform to give a voice to the voiceless. Seven hundred black rhinos were slaughtered in 2013, marking it as the bloodiest year for poaching. The black rhino is critically endangered and could be extinct in less than two years.

Gillie and Marc created a remarkably high-tech installation that brought the call of the wild to the city. It featured three magnificent life-sized rhino sculptures that invited the public to be part of their run for freedom.

When someone climbed on the rhinos it would set off a recording of poachers shooting guns, followed by a rhino stampede. Millions of people passed through Federation Square and were only too eager to climb up on a rhino to create awareness about this endangered species. The event quickly went viral on Instagram too.

“Our hope was that everyone who sees Run for your Life can feel a connection to the rhinos and to their future,” Marc says.

The sculpture was donated to La Trobe University in Melbourne in the name of bringing art to the people. “The Run for your Life sculptures are a welcome and striking addition to our Melbourne campus and appreciated by staff and students,” said Chancellor Professor Adrienne E Clarke. “Our family of rhinoceros are prompting discussion, delight and curiosity – traits encouraged by our University.”