Rhino Costume (1989)
Gerald Scarfe (b.1936)
Rhino Costume (1989)
Plastic, plasterzote (rubberized foam), metal, fabric
Dimensions variable
Barbican Library foyer
There’s a rhino in the library! That sounds like the title of an exciting children’s story but it’s actually a phrase that gets yelled in my head on the rare occasion when I wander past the desk at the Barbican Library. Except I don’t often wander past the desk at the Barbican Library because thanks to ebooks and the internet almost everything the library offers is already on my phone. Everything except the 2 metre tall rhino casually standing at the top of the stairs.
The first time I encountered the rhino I thought it might be a solid statue. Possibly concrete or plaster cast. When I got a little bit closer I figured that it was probably just papier-mâché. But then I finally spent the time to have a proper look. It’s fabric, formed around some kind of frame, and that frame has been designed to fit around a human body. That rhino is a costume.
From what I can gather the rhino costume has been amusing Barbican library visitors since 2016 when it appeared as part of the ‘Scarfe and Music’ exhibition to celebrate the works of cartoonist and illustrator Gerald Scarfe. He’s most commonly known for the work he did for Pink Floyd’s groundbreaking album, The Wall, but he has a long history of theatre & stage design experience. In 1989 Scarfe designed a series of rhino costumes for the musical ‘Born Again’, which was based on “Eugene Ionescu’s absurdist play Rhinoceros, in which all but one of the inhabitants of a small French town gradually turn into magnificent horned beasts.” Although Scarfe designed the costumes they were built by Niki Lyons, a specialist in walk-around creature suits who also worked on Teletubbies and for the Jim Henson company.
According to a Jan 2022 Barbican newsletter the rhino costume isn’t an original from the stage show but a later version designed for the London Marathon. When the production of Born Again wrapped the costumes were donated to the charity Save the Rhino and one of the actors subsequently ran the London Marathon in his costume on their behalf as a quirky fundraising stunt. Now the costumes are in high demand for annual marathons and other fundraisers, an unexpected second life for Scarfe’s creation that he never could have imagined when designing them for the stage.
Is a costume art? What about a costume that’s been turned into inefficient marathon wear? However you want to classify it, I like it, and not just because it’s so damn incongruous sitting there in the library. Then again, if you’re going to house a rhino anywhere outside of a zoo then I can’t think of a better place than a library, which is home to so many amazing stories and colourful characters. It’s almost impossible to look upon this rhino costume and not immediately want to know the story that goes with it. Better yet, maybe you’ll just make one up. Is it a hero? Is it a villain? Is it just simply misunderstood?
The other reason I like it is because of all the venues in London in which you could have housed this rhino the Barbican is probably the most perfect fit. The hand hammered concrete that was specially mixed for the brutalist arts centre is a close match for the thick rhinoceros skin which, like the grey mottled walls of the Barbican, looks cold, off-putting and un-huggable. None of that has deterred me from getting quite close and wondering just what it would be like to wear one.
That’s why I like it.
Libraries are where anything can happen.
Previously, on Why I Like It:
Feb — I Want My Time With You (2017), Tracey Emin
Jan — Unearthed (2019), Adam Halls