Root considers the psychological and material landscape of captive elephants. Recent research collected from the infamous elephant Jumbo’s autopsy revealed the effects of captive life on his body. In the wild, elephants eat large amounts of hard barks and roots which grind their teeth down overtime. Jumbo’s diet while at the zoo consisted of soft grasses, oats, and frequent sweets from the visiting public, allowing his teeth to become overgrown and bent out of shape. These ailments caused him terrible pain and were the source of nightly and violent overnight rages in his enclosure. Similarly, Hanako the elephant suffered from poor dental health during her long 69 years of isolation at Inokashira Park Zoo in Tokyo. Her teeth began to fall out shortly after her arrival to the park at age two in 1949, requiring that she be fed a diet of liquified food.
Lyons is interested in both the enclosure and tooth as topographic mapping of the emotional lives of the elephants. In a sense, the tooth becomes landscape. Psychological study has found links between poor mental health and dental health; signifying poor conditions of their enclosures/lifestyles. The unique ridges and twists of the teeth seem to mimic that of a tree stump, nodding to both distant memories of the elephants natural lives and the proper diet required to cure their pain. In the corner of the painting, an elephant stands on a truncated tree, alluding to their deep intelligence and memory. Reference to the harsh mid-century concrete design of Hanako's enclosure is revealed to the viewer in a cloud of bad breath as the elephant opens its mouth to perform extractive surgery to uproot its aching tooth.