The elephant in the room
Honey, can we get rid of the wallpaper? It’s shitting baseball-sized chunks in the living room.
Graffiti artist and prankster Banksy opened his first Los Angeles show on Friday in an obscure warehouse… [the Indian] elephant takes pride of place. Tai, 38, looms large in a room decked out with a sofa, a television, rugs on the floor and a man and woman sitting reading obliviously on the couch. It is titled “Home Sweet Home.”
“We are sitting on the couch not seeing her. From what I understand, the elephant is a symbol of all the world’s problems being ignored,” said Kari Johnson, Tai’s caretaker. [Link]As a metaphor for problems that people are uncomfortable talking about, “the elephant in the room” is not the most original. But then few people actually put the elephant in the room, paint it red and adorn it with gold fleurs-de-lis to match the brocade wallpaper, and then dare viewers not to talk about it. [Link]
Some animal rights activists feel that painting elephants is exploitative (via Boing Boing):
Les Schobert, a former L.A. Zoo curator who is a prominent voice in the animal rights movement, said the exhibit ‘degrades the elephant. Here we have an endangered species. And we’re taking it and moving it into a warehouse and painting it. It’s a mockery. There’s no reason. This isn’t a religious ceremony in India…’ ‘We find it no longer acceptable to dye baby chicks at Easter, but it’s OK to dye an elephant…’
The mahouts defend the practice:
‘Tai has done many, many movies… She’s used to makeup.’ The pachyderm works only six hours, according to staffers at the exhibit. The elephant’s floral covering is administered with nontoxic paint. [Link]
The activists would have a fit over elephants in India.
on Sunday, September 17th, 2006, 7:35 am in Art, Humor › 
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boing boing also hasa nice commentary on decorated ‘haathi’s’
Thanks for the post- this really brings to light the ridiculousness of our current state of affairs. We’re actually getting upset that the elephant in the room is painted, but not raising our ire at the metaphorical worldly elephants looming over us without the ‘camo’ adorning the literal animal. This animal lives, people whom we know of but abstractly through our forays into the information provided by multivarious medias… these die. Making mountains out of mole-hills, we hereby console ourselves being too timid to climb such peaks we turn our backs upon.
Where can the elephant go, if it wanted to?
Whoa. Until I read the quote from the animal rights person I didn’t realize the Elephant was real!!!!
this reminds me of American Beauty’s “I’ts JUST A COUCH!!!” quote, “it’s not just a couch this is an indian elephant dyed in non-toxic painting..”
idiotik and stupid!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1
Bansky shouldn’t have exploited the elephant period. I agree that there are many troubles in the world that we need to call attention to but causing discomfort to any living thing in doing so only adds to the list of wrongs.
this isnt stupid or idiotic or exploiting the damn elephant UHHHHHHHHHH it was approved by the rspca so stop your whining.
it probably thought it was recieving a massage and LOVED it. why not focus all your anger and attention on the cruelty thats taking place in bali and other asian countries where elephants are used as slaves?
and as if the elephant didnt love it,,its famous now..
There are ways to adorn an elephant that are positive. But here, we’re painting a poor harmless animal to depict it as an unwanted thing - how sad is that. I love elephants - I think they’re the best. Very caring and highly intelligent creatures.
Artists go to many great lengths ‘for the sake of art’ and ‘to make a statement’. With so much that’s already been done, rather than re-creating a silly cartoon about how nobody notices or mentions the elephant(problem) in the room, this artist used gaudy, but ever-so-clever pink and gold, a real living room stage, and not to mention ‘a real elephant!’ This ‘in your face’ installation emphasizes the conceptual qualities of this piece. And for the elephant, it may not be natural, but with non-toxic paint and a brief, harmless stint in it’s life, it is safely projected as a ’star’, rather than being poached for it’s ivory, like his brothers on the endangered species list!
I love it!
this world is seriously pathetic, the elephant was not harmed, he used organic stuff on the elephant if the elephant felt unhappy or whatever there is no way it would have stood in the warehouse and took all the attention but it did, calm down people who disagree, banksy is fantastic, yeah im 16 and young but im not a vandal and neither is he , his work is art not hooliganism. he produces political views through grafitti. also i would like to point out that banksys work should carry on being shown around the world, he is famous but in the best way possible unlike some stars who do sod all for the world and make people have anorexia etc. I love how he keeps his identification anoymous, go banksy.
so yeah cheers people who support him and seriously, to the others just think how he isn’t harming. Your all making a fuss over him when there are other horrible things happening in the world that no one is doing anything about.
i should be in politics!
cheers
x
Also, im studying graphic design and want to be a interior designer, i think banksy should consider nice wallpaper not pink and gold, yukkies.
cheers duck!