Juan Travyo Lonesome George Essay

An Examination of Lonesome George by Juan Travieso When considering cultures in collision a museum is a fine example of a clash of positives and negatives. This can be a troubling idea for the curators and visitors of museums because their collective pursuit of further cultural knowledge is often pure. However, in constructing a museum more often than not items of important significance are transplanted from their original location to be viewed and studied by a foreign people in a foreign land. The concept of the “rightful owners” of history and artifacts is a complicated one that leads to many cultural collisions. This is because multiple cultures often lay claim to the same artifacts leading to conflict among the claimants. With all of these ideas in mind the process of selecting a piece of art from the Cornell Fine Arts Museum for analysis became far more difficult. In examining the thought-provoking piece Lonesome George by Juan Travieso a warning message is telegraphed loud and clear.
Displayed on a wall by itself it is easy to digest the piece on it’s own and search for deeper implications. The artwork’s namesake was the last living Pinta Island tortoise of the Galapagos Islands before it’s passing in 2012. This information alone makes this a fascinating and culturally charged piece. Travieso highlights the loss of ecological diversity that has ravaged the Galapagos Islands. The circumstance that led to the demise of the Pinta Island tortoise eerily echoes a sadly familiar occurrence of the 21st century. The goats depicted in this work are representative of the goats that were brought to the Galapagos Islands and that wreaked havoc on the ecosystem. The native animals struggled to adapt to the new species and were negatively impacted both directly and