ZooTampa has an excellent new piece of art at the entrance of the park, and its deeper meaning is going to cause climate change deniers to cringe under their face masks.
In a social media post, ZooTampa explains that Bob Partington's “Melting Panthers” is part of a CLEO Institute campaign “to bring awareness to climate change and its effect on wildlife such as the endangered Florida panther.”
The work was installed on Friday morning; it depicts a mother Florida panther and her cub. The wax sculpture looks over the zoo’s manatee circle fountain and is supposed to be melted within five days, “revealing an urgent message about rising temperatures in Florida.”
At the time of publishing, the temperature in Tampa was 88 degrees; the Accuweather real feel temperature hit 100 degrees. And while vehicles killed almost two-dozen Florida Panthers in 2019, the CLEO Institute wrote that “High temperatures are harming our wildlife, including the Florida panther.” The nonprofit is directing folks to floridaclimatepledge.org as part of the art installation.
One other Partington work is on display in Florida right now (a melting lifeguard station in Miami), and Orlando City Hall is set to get its own melting Partington on Sept. 24, according to WUSF.
A message of conservation is baked into the mission of pretty much every zoo ever, but we hope the work doesn’t piss off too many of the climate deniers who head to the zoo hoping to hear the primates make those funny whooping noises.
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This article appears in Sep 17-23, 2020.