Phoolan Comes to London

Latest News - Phoolan on the move!

Elephant Parade 2010 is billed as the capital’s biggest public art event and Topps Tiles will be teaming up with artists and conservationists to flood London with 275 life-size baby elephants during May, June and July.

Focusing on the plight of endangered Asian elephants, who might cease to exist in the wild by 2050, elephants will be installed at key sites from Buckingham Palace through to the Olympic Stadium grounds.     The parade is expected to involve millions of Londoners and elephants will be auctioned at Sotheby’s to raise £1 million for key elephant conservation projects across Asia.

Topps Tiles is proud to sponsor one of these ‘babies’, a female elephant named Phoolan.  Her name is Hindu for ‘flower’ and she has a very important story to tell. 

All the elephants in the parade started life as blank sculptures and specially chosen artists then set to work decorating them.  Phoolan will be the only one in the parade to have a hide and ceremonial coverings made entirely of mosaic tiles from Topps.   Yet her looks are skin deep.  The tiled side of Phoolan (pictured) shows her beauty and the glamorous trappings that adorn elephants at public festivals but her ‘dark side’ reveals a handcrafted skeleton with bones broken by landmines and human cruelty which, together, tell of the exploitation and neglect which many Asian elephants suffer every day of their lives.

Phoolan’s co-creators are artists Carrie Reichardt and Nick Reynolds and the event is organised by the charity Elephant Family www.elephantfamily.org

Phoolan will be installed outside Natural History Museum in Cromwell Road, watch the video below to see Phoolan being made.... 

Latest News - Phoolan on the move!