Tuesday 22 June 2010

Elephant Parade London: #46 Bobby, #135 Gerald

There always has to be one. As part of the Elephant Parade which recently took place in London, six of the 258 fibre glass elephants were placed in Selfridges department store on Oxford Street. One of these six elephants was #135 Gerald, a bright blue elephant with a leaf pattern. The artist, Jonathan Yeo, said he was inspired by "an elephant walking through a park on a sunny Autumn day". So far, so uncontroversial. But after a few days on display, Gerald was removed from public viewing after apparent complaints that his "leaves" were in fact of a more adult nature.



After a prolonged absence from public view, and after a Facebook group was set up to "Free Gerald", he eventually was allowed to be seen by the public at the Elephant Family HQ, before finally being relocated to Chinawhite nightclub.

Having seen Gerald when he was at the Elephant Family HQ, I have to say that all the "controversy" seems to have been a lot of fuss about nothing. Even being aware of what was on Gerald's "leaves" I wouldn't say it was immediately obvious, and certainly wasn't the first thing you notice when looking at him. Still, at least Gerald didn't end up hidden from the public eye forever.

Please take a minute to sign the petition to help save the Asian elephant over at the Elephant Family website.

4 comments:

  1. That is simply brilliant - thanks so much for sharing. Love the other designs you've done for the Elephant Parade, any more in the pipeline?

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  2. Cheers Andrew. I'm glad you like them. I've got some ideas for more. Watch this space...

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  3. Great stuff Paul...
    Do let us know if you draw any more cartoons on the parade.

    What inspired you to do these? Have you been hunting elephants around London?

    Maan

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  4. Thanks for the comment. I've posted some more Elephant Parade cartoons which you can also view on my blog (http://lookwhatidrawed.blogspot.com/search/label/Elephant%20Parade%20London).

    I did my first Elephant Parade drawing to illustrate an article for Amelia's Magazine (http://www.ameliasmagazine.com/art/londons-elephant-parade/2010/05/14/) and after going around and eventually photographing all 258 of the elephants, I decided that I would continue my Elephant fixation by drawing some of my favourite characters. I'm not quite sure if I'll draw all 258, but I'll certainly give it a good go...

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