Mo Ganji: Axolotl | Axolotl | Ambystoma mexicanum | No. 022/250 from work group 8/99

Axolotl | Axolotl | Ambystoma mexicanum

Mo Ganji’s single line meets the axolotl as a form suspended between states — neither fully larval nor fully adult, a creature defined by transformation that never occurs. By reducing the amphibian to a simple contour, the drawing hints at this unusual life strategy without attempting to depict it. The line becomes a means of revealing essence through restraint.

Ambystoma mexicanum is a neotenic salamander native to the lake systems of the Valley of Mexico, historically Lake Xochimilco and Lake Chalco. In the wild, it is now extremely rare. The species is listed as Critically Endangered (CR) on the IUCN Red List. Surveys indicate that wild populations have collapsed dramatically due to habitat loss, urban expansion, pollution, the introduction of predatory fish, and fragmentation of the remaining canal systems.

While axolotls are abundant in captivity and widely used in research for their extraordinary regenerative abilities, these captive populations do not reflect the precarious state of the wild lineage. The original habitat — once a vast high-altitude lake ecosystem — has been reduced to a patchwork of canals and small wetland fragments.

Ganji’s single-line rendering does not illustrate these pressures directly. It offers instead a distilled moment of recognition: a reminder that even species celebrated worldwide can be vanishing in their natural environments. Through simplicity, the drawing encourages attention to what is essential — a being whose continued existence in the wild depends on the protection and restoration of the last traces of its original home.