From 3 May to 4 July two-hundred painted elephants, roughly 140 pounds each, will storm the city. Eventually they will be corralled into Sotheby's for an auction to raise money for an endangered species of Asian elephant. Most sources are claiming that this will be London's biggest public art event on record. I love public art, but when the end of the line is an auction I have a hard time accepting it as art for art's sake. I do expect that these guys are going to brighten up the city, and of course they are a whimsical installation - but that doesn't change the fact that their priority, besides raising awareness, is making money. I like to at least believe that artists create objects for reasons other than economics...
Wednesday, April 28, 2010
elephants
From 3 May to 4 July two-hundred painted elephants, roughly 140 pounds each, will storm the city. Eventually they will be corralled into Sotheby's for an auction to raise money for an endangered species of Asian elephant. Most sources are claiming that this will be London's biggest public art event on record. I love public art, but when the end of the line is an auction I have a hard time accepting it as art for art's sake. I do expect that these guys are going to brighten up the city, and of course they are a whimsical installation - but that doesn't change the fact that their priority, besides raising awareness, is making money. I like to at least believe that artists create objects for reasons other than economics...
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i think this is neat! the money is being put towards a good cause... so i don't think artists are making a profit off of their works. instead, they are using art as a way to make a statement about endangered species.
ReplyDeletein an ideal world, making art would be "enough" to raise awareness about issues. however, realistically, making art about endangered species wouldn't actually save any elephants in asian (okay... maybe one or two?). this auction is creatively using our capitalist society's want to buy cool shit towards a noble cause. of course, i wonder what put these elephants on an extinction list in the first place?
So does this mean you are coming home with an elephant? More shelves in your room?
ReplyDeleteI agree with Kelsey. Also, they did one of these in Buffalo a few years ago...but with buffaloes.
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