In Delhi, artist Subodh Gupta is busy working on a sculptural baby elephant made of steel, while in Mumbai, architect Ashiesh Shah is putting the finishing touches to one covered in woven cane. One hundred and one hand-painted, gilded, welded and blinged out versions are underway, as 101 artists, interior designers, architects and fashion designers — including names like Manish Arora, Umang Hutheesing, Peter D’Ascoli and Christian Louboutin — add their creativity to the Elephant Parade, which kicks off in Jaipur today.
Previous editions have seen the global initiative, that is working to save the disappearing Asian elephant, generate millions (in 2010, Jack Vettriano’s ‘The Singing Butler’ elephant got the highest bid, of £155,000). And you can spot the elephants in diverse spaces, including the Chelsea Royal Hospital and actress Goldie Hawn’s property (she bought Tarun Tahiliani’s Jewel-Ele in London). As the five-foot herd of Instagrammable pachyderms get ready to hit the street of the Pink City and Mumbai — to put their might behind protecting 101 elephant corridors across India — we speak with a few of its creators on why these little guys bring with them messages of love and coexistence.
Tarun Tahiliani, couturier
“I think anybody with half a brain would understand the need to preserve our ecology,” begins Tahiliani, who became “obsessed” with wildlife after he watched David Attenborough’s Life series and admits to going on “wild trips” from South Africa to the Galapagos Islands. On one of these trips, to the Bandipur National Park in Karnataka, he was charged by a bull elephant. “Our driver bolted and the only thing we could think of doing was to pretend to be dead. I don’t think I have ever lain so motionless in a car with the doors open,” he shares. The designer — who spent a lot of time with Mark Shand when he visited India, and created the elephant, Jewel-Ele, for the 2010 London edition — says his new ‘baby’, Airavat, is symbolic of the interconnectedness of the different species that make up our ecosystem. “His trunk stands for the trunk of a tree, with roots that connect everything, and out of this wonderful growth our butterflies fly into the atmosphere,” he says, adding, “Just keeping the feeding corridors alive is not enough, if there are no trees, the air is not clean, and so on. Everything has to work in consort with each other.” So instead of the parade being just another party, he hopes it will sensitise people and make them “want to protect the world that we have inherited, that we have been so irresponsible with”.
Vikram Goyal, interior designer and entrepreneur
As a child, Goyal admits the character of Babar the Elephant was his favourite. And growing up, thanks to a father who loves wildlife, he spent a lot of time in the Jim Corbett National Park and the other sanctuaries in Uttarakhand. “The elephant is part of everybody’s everyday consciousness, and it is important we save the corridors that are now endangered because of urbanisation,” he says. He is building his elephant out of metal, a three-dimensional artwork that is a modern version of the jaali. “It’s a metaphor of the entrapment of the elephant, but can also be seen as a message of keeping them in the protected environment of the corridors,” explains Goyal, who is looking forward to what everyone is bringing to this common dialogue.
Seema Kohli, painter
It took three months and many tubes of acrylic paint to get Haathi Raaja ready for the parade. According to Kohli, a double ‘a’ is essential to get the right rhythm of his name! “Painting him brought back vivid memories of my children’s childhood, especially my daughter’s, who was obsessed with elephants. She would make me tell her a new story every night, about Jumbo the Dumbo, who was also her Haathi Raaja,” she says. The work, which draws from Earth and the night sky — with stars, trees, flowers, and even a Ganesha represented — stands for nature, she says, “which supports animals and us”. One of the most poignant memories she has of a tusker is at an ancient Ganesha temple in Pondicherry. “Outside the temple, there was a majestic elephant, chained. People were revering him, feeding him, wanting his blessings. The memory pains me even today; I never visited that temple again,” she says, adding she hopes the parade will create an “honest and transparent awareness of the survival of these majestic creatures and saving the environment”.
Gunjan Gupta, furniture designer
In 2010, Gupta was in London when the Elephant Family brought down the parade. “It was lovely to see key areas in the city come alive, to chance upon a beautifully decorated elephant on your everyday route. You couldn’t help but engage with them; I saw people stopping to learn more about them and the larger context,” she says, hoping this curiosity and engagement will be replicated here and help the Indian edition meet its goal. Looking forward to seeing the well-known aesthetics of renowned artists and the fresh new ideas that will be explored, she says, for her elephant, she is collaborating with traditional pichhwai artists. “I’m making a colourful, vibrant elephant, and it is inspired by one of my chairs. It will be a contemporary pichhwai, that will move away from traditional motifs and iconography. And he will stand for joy,” she explains.
Princess Pea, contemporary artist
We haven’t yet seen her face, but the artist — who stands out with her giant ‘pea’ head mask and green hair — has been vocal about topics like identity and gender. The environment is also a pet passion; she had participated in the London Elephant Parade with an artwork called Mr Bojangles. “This time my elephant is female, called Soul-Sisters. She is the girl and the goal: to work towards the betterment of god’s gifted creatures,” she says, adding she has used a style she likes to call ‘Miniature Manga’, like a series of silk paintings that are dramatic re-enactments of fragments of Princess Pea’s lived reality. “The attention to detail and bringing back of culture through miniature style painting also remind us to nurture what has been in existence,” she adds.
Suneet Varma, fashion designer
Varma first caught the Elephant Parade in London — “I saw them in front of the V&A (Victoria and Albert Museum)” — and since then he’s been following the initiative. “I’m a massive animal lover and one of my earliest memories is seeing an elephant when I was four, at a circus in Aligarh, and feeling dwarfed,” he recalls. Since then, of course, he prefers seeing the mighty beasts in forests, but his fascination has never waned. “I worked on my elephant, Ele-boo, for over a month, hand-painting him every day for at least three hours,” he says, explaining, “While I was inspired by Klimt’s painting, The Kiss, I call my work the Galaxy of Love. While working on him, his blue colour also reminded me of Krishna and the concept of omnipresent love; the love for a bee, a lotus or a person. So my inspiration lies somewhere in between.” And since he likes three dimensional pieces, Varma adds he invited Jindal Steel’s home interior brand, Arttdinox, to collaborate. “I have incorporated beautiful stainless steel lotuses, stars, and beautiful waves on the elephant, creating something magical yet modern.”
“My elephant is called Mounitva. The flowers and speech bubbles on him represent the fact that all living creatures communicate, but most humans don’t care to understand them. My work tries to make visible the silent cries of the innocent.”
— Dhruvi Acharya, artist
“We need to save the elephant, one of the most majestic animals out there. My work is still in progress, but it will be a sculpture made with steel.”
— Subodh Gupta, sculptor
My elephant is called Sundar Bans; it means beautiful forest. As a child, I was an avid reader of Enid Blyton and the books helped me create magical visuals in my head of places I’d never visited. For this design, I created a surreal forest theme — colourful, magical and exotic. Fourteen artists from the Sabyasachi Art Foundation rendered my imagination meticulously with oil and acrylic.
— Sabyasachi Mukherjee, couturier