FREIGHTED: 500 years of rhinoceros collection and display

Fritha Langerman’s exhibition FREIGHTED: 500 years of rhinoceros collection and display, previously shown at the Iziko South African Museum, was on exhibition at the National Museum of Natural History and Science, Lisbon between January 2020 and January 2022. In March it moved to the National Museum of Natural Sciences, Madrid, where it will remain throughout their 250-year celebration before moving to other European  museums in October.

The exhibition draws attention to the crisis of extinction of animal species, particularly the rhinoceros. It presents this animal as an object of spectacle, study, currency and desire, and refers to the complex history of colony, power and acquisition in relation to early collections of natural history, and the relevance of this to 21st century collections today. By appropriating museological methods of display, while producing an exhibition of entirely reproduced objects, it casts doubt on the origins of collections of natural history and questions the cultural representation of nature.