Mo Ganji: Bowmouth Guitarfish | Bogenmaul-Gitarrenrochen | Rhina ancylostoma | No. 046/250 from work group 8/99

Bowmouth Guitarfish | Bogenmaul-Gitarrenrochen | Rhina ancylostoma

Mo Ganji’s single line approaches the bowmouth guitarfish by tracing a quiet, essential signal of its presence. The form is reduced to a continuous gesture that hints at the animal’s characteristic outline without binding the drawing to any fixed interpretation. In Ganji’s sense, the line can point toward this being while remaining open enough to suggest many others — an invitation to encounter essence before concept.

Rhina ancylostoma is listed as Critically Endangered (CR) on the IUCN Red List. Widespread declines have occurred across the Indo-West Pacific, where the species once occupied shallow coastal waters, sandy bottoms and coral reef slopes. Today, populations are severely depleted, with only scattered individuals recorded in many parts of its former range.

The primary threats include intense fishing pressure — both targeted and as bycatch — driven in large part by the high value of fins in international trade. Habitat degradation, coral reef decline and coastal development further erode the environments on which the species depends. Slow growth and low reproductive rates limit its ability to recover from such losses.

Ganji’s line offers a distilled moment of recognition. The reduced contour invites viewers to meet a presence that exists beyond the labels and categories we impose, and gently reminds us that the human tendency to see ourselves outside of nature obscures our responsibility within it — even as the lives we classify depend on the same fragile continuities that sustain our own.