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Acknowledgement of Country

We acknowledge the Traditional Owners of Country, in particular the Gadigal people on whose land the Biennale of Sydney is located. We recognise their continuing connection to land, waters, and culture and pay our respect to Elders, past and present.

First Nations people are respectfully advised that this site includes works, names and images of deceased people. This includes cultural practices and artistic intellectual property of a sensitive nature.

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Foreground: Alexandra Daisy Ginsberg, The Substitute, 2019. Presentation at the 23rd Biennale of Sydney was made possible with generous assistance from the UK/Australia Season Patrons Board, the British Council and the Australian Government as part of the UK/Australia Season. Courtesy the artist. Background: Cave Urban, Flow, 2022 (detail). Courtesy the artists; and Ackroyd & Harvey; Uncle Charles “Chicka” Madden / Wanstead Reserve, Cooks River, Sydney,2022; Lille Madden / Wanstead Reserve, Cooks River, Sydney,2022(detail). Commissioned by the Biennale of Sydney with generous support from the Goethe-Institut Australia and generous assistance from the UK/Australia Season Patrons Board, the British Council and the Australian Government as part of the UK/Australia Season and with generous support from Rachel Verghis; Ana Barboza and Rafael Freyre, Water ecosystem, 2019-2022 (detail). Courtesy the artists & Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Lima; and Nicole Foreshew, YIRUNG BILA (SKY HEAVEN RIVER),2022(detail). Courtesy the artist. Commissioned by the Biennale of Sydney with generous support from the Australia Council for the ArtsInstallation view, 23rd Biennale of Sydney, rīvus, 2022, The Cutaway at Barangaroo. Photography: Document Photography.

Foreground: Alexandra Daisy Ginsberg, The Substitute, 2019. Presentation at the 23rd Biennale of Sydney was made possible with generous assistance from the UK/Australia Season Patrons Board, the British Council and the Australian Government as part of the UK/Australia Season. Courtesy the artist.Background:Ana Barboza and Rafael Freyre, Water ecosystem, 2019-2022 (detail). Courtesy the artists & Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Lima; Cave Urban, Flow, 2022 (detail). Courtesy the artists. Commissioned by the Biennale of Sydney with generous support fromAndrew Cameron AO and Cathy Cameron;Hera Büyüktaşçıyan, Fishbone IV,2019-2022. Courtesy the artist & Green Art Gallery, Dubai. Commissioned by the Biennale of Sydney with generous assistance from SAHA Association;Jessie French, The Myth of Nature –agaG1, 2021-2022(detail). Courtesy the artist & Anaïs Lellouche. Commissioned by the Biennale of Sydney with generous support from the Australia Council for the Arts and assistance from the Sustaining Creative Workers Initiative. The Sustaining Creative Workers Initiative is supported by the Victorian Government through Creative Victoria and Regional Arts Victoria; Leeroy New, Flotilla, 2022. Courtesy the artist. Commissioned by the Biennale of Sydney with generous supportfrom the Australia-ASEAN Council and assistance from Mirvac and Parramatta Artists’ Studios; Iltja Ntjarra (Many Hands) Art Centre, Pmarra Nurna-kanha Ntarntarai -Care for our Country, 2022(detail). Courtesy the artists & Iltja Ntjarra / Many Hands ArtCentre. Commissioned by the Biennale of Sydney with generous assistance from the Australia Council for the Arts and assistance from Artback NT;and D Harding, Untitled (wall composition), 2022. Courtesy the artist & Milani Gallery, Brisbane.Commissioned by the Biennale of Sydney with generous support from the Australia Council for the Arts. Installation view, 23rd Biennale of Sydney, rīvus, 2022, The Cutaway at Barangaroo. Photography: Document Photography.

Foreground: Alexandra Daisy Ginsberg, The Substitute, 2019. Presentation at the 23rd Biennale of Sydney was made possible with generous assistance from the UK/Australia Season Patrons Board, the British Council and the Australian Government as part of the UK/Australia Season. Courtesy the artist. Background: Cave Urban, Flow, 2022 (detail). Courtesy the artists; and Ackroyd & Harvey; Uncle Charles “Chicka” Madden / Wanstead Reserve, Cooks River, Sydney,2022; Lille Madden / Wanstead Reserve, Cooks River, Sydney,2022. Commissioned by the Biennale of Sydney with generous support from the Goethe-Institut Australia and generous assistance from the UK/Australia Season Patrons Board, the British Council and the Australian Government as part of the UK/Australia Season and with generous support from Rachel Verghis. Courtesythe artists. Installation view, 23rd Biennale of Sydney, rīvus, 2022, The Cutaway at Barangaroo. Photography: Document Photography.

The Substitute, 2019

digital video, colour, sound 

6:18 mins  

Courtesy the artist  

Presentation at the 23rd Biennale of Sydney was made possible with generous support from the UK/Australia Season Patrons Board, the British Council and the Australian Government as part of the UK/Australia Season.

The Substitute asks why humans obsess over creating new life forms, while neglecting existing ones. In 2019, Alexandra Daisy Ginsberg created the artwork following the death of the last male northern white rhinoceros (Ceratotherium simum cottoni), who humans named Sudan. This subspecies of rhino roamed the grasslands and savannah woodlands of countries in East and Central Africa since the early Pleistocene period (over 2.5 million years ago) and when Sudan passed, there was a media frenzy around the world.

Ginsberg digitally resurrected a a life size northern white rhino, isolated in a white room. The rhino, an artificial agent begins its life as disparate pixels unaware of its surroundings. Informed by an experiment by cutting-edge AI research at DeepMind, the digital rhino becomes fully formed as he finds his way around the enclosed space. Finally, the rhino looks us in the eye, before disappearing. Today there only remain two northern white rhinos in the world, Sudan’s daughter, Najin and granddaughter, Fatu. Scientists hope to create new northern white rhinos from collected sperm and eggs, using endangered southern white rhinos as surrogate mothers.

‘We briefly mourned a subspecies that humans have hunted to extinction, while being comforted with the hope humans may bring it back. But why would humans protect a resurrected rhino more than its ancestors? Isolated from its kin and its natural habitat, would this new rhino be a ‘real’ northern white, or would it just look like one?’—Alexandra Daisy Ginsberg