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ANNE BRENNER

CÔTE D’IVOIRE · 1990

Savanna

In 1990, I placed canvases on animal trails I had identified while tracking. I prepared their surfaces, then left them in the field. The visible traces are the material evidence of these passages.

Imprints of life

Elephant, Warthog, Hartebeest, Termites, by Anne Brenner. Animal tracks in acrylic and ash on canvas, Savanna, Côte d’Ivoire, 1990.

Elephant, warthog, hartebeest, termites. Acrylic and ash on canvas. 165 × 345 cm
An elephant family. Several passages in different directions.

Comoé Elephant, by Anne Brenner. Overlapping tracks of an elephant family in acrylic and ash on canvas, Savanna, Côte d’Ivoire, 1990.
Marahoué Elephant and Warthog, by Anne Brenner. Elephant, warthog and termite traces in acrylic and ash on canvas, Côte d’Ivoire, 1990.

Comoé Elephant. Acrylic and ash on canvas. 159 × 305 cm
An elephant family

Marahoué Elephant and Warthog. Acrylic and ash on canvas. 155 × 373 cm
Tracks of elephants, a warthog family and termites

Rhinoceros, Termites, by Anne Brenner. Traces on a canvas prepared with acrylic and earth, Savanna, Côte d’Ivoire, 1990.

Rhinoceros, termites. Acrylic and earth on stretched canvas. 150 × 163 cm.

Marahoué Elephant and Poacher, by Anne Brenner. A poacher’s footprint on canvas prepared with acrylic and earth, Savanna, 1990.

Marahoué Elephant and Poacher. Acrylic and earth on canvas.
145 × 161 cm
A poacher’s footprint

Searching the ground for animal tracks in Côte d’Ivoire during Anne Brenner’s fieldwork for Savanna, 1990.

Reading the terrain

Choosing a site begins with reading signs: tracks on the ground, displaced vegetation, mud on a tree trunk, fresh traces near water. Tracking determines where to place the canvas on a trail used by animals.

Looking for signs on the ground

Collecting a canvas from an animal trail in Côte d’Ivoire during Anne Brenner’s Savanna project, 1990.

Collecting a canvas in the field

Canvases covered with ash on an animal trail in Côte d’Ivoire, used to collect tracks for Anne Brenner’s Savanna project, 1990.

Canvases covered with ash on an animal trail

Detail of an elephant footprint impressed on a canvas from Savanna by Anne Brenner, Côte d’Ivoire, 1990.

Detail. An elephant footprint.

Field notebook recording rhinoceroses crossing canvases during Anne Brenner’s Savanna project in Côte d’Ivoire, 1990.

Field notebook. Rhinoceroses on the canvases.

A canvas camouflaged with local vegetation beside water on a hippopotamus trail, Savanna project by Anne Brenner, Côte d’Ivoire.

The camouflaged canvas

To work on a hippopotamus trail, I camouflage the canvas with materials found on site. Its position and surface are adapted to the terrain and the animals’ movements.

A camouflaged canvas in the field, near water.

Preparing a canvas among grasses on an animal trail for Anne Brenner’s Savanna project in Côte d’Ivoire.

Preparing the canvas on the trail

Placing the canvas involves adapting it to the chosen trail and the surrounding vegetation.

Placing a canvas among the grasses, Côte d’Ivoire.

Collecting a canvas in the field after its exposure to animal passages, Savanna project by Anne Brenner, Côte d’Ivoire.

Collecting a canvas in the field.

Tortya Hippopotamus, reverse, by Anne Brenner. Back of a canvas bearing traces from its placement on a hippopotamus trail in Côte d’Ivoire.

Two sides, one material
history

The canvas retains the mark of an event that took place in my absence. Traces of several passages may overlap. Both front and back bear the imprints of the terrain and the effects of the environment.

Tortya Hippopotamus, reverse, 144 × 158 cm

THE WORK ON DISPLAY

From the savanna
to the exhibition

The canvases bear traces of animals and of the conditions encountered in the field. Displayed in the exhibition space, they retain the history of those passages.

A suspended canvas from Savanna by Anne Brenner, displayed at Grenoble Natural History Museum in 1992.

1992. Grenoble Natural History Museum. Solo
exhibition.

© 2026 Anne Brenner
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©2025 Anne Brenner

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