Free Gerald the Elephant!

Johnathan Yeo's "Blue Elephant"

I recently reported on how Londoners were rubbing their eyes in disbelief as a colourful herd of 258 life-sized model baby elephants has appeared across their City to raise money for charity. Artists including Sacha Jafri and Sam Hacking have decorated each of the 1.5m (4.9ft)-high fibreglass models, which are being displayed in public places from May. Then on 30 June, the charity Elephant Family will auction the models, and hope to raise about £2m to protect India's elephants. The animals have been placed at numerous landmarks including Buckingham Palace. The 2010 London Elephant Parade has now become something of an obsession with many Londoners pursuing an unofficial challenge to photograph all the elephants across London.

Now imagine their distress reported in the Evening Standard that Gerald the Elephant is being held in captivity! According to the report a model elephant painted by artist Jonathan Yeo is generating a cult following after it was banned from its home in Selfridges for being too risqué. The sculpture is covered with Yeo's trademark pornographic collage, which proved too much for bosses at the Oxford street store who asked for it to be removed after complaints.


Selfridges, Oxford Street, London

The artwork, called Gerald and created by the son of South Suffolk Tory MP Tim Yeo, is one of 258 life-size statues of baby jumbos dotted around London for the 2010 Elephant Parade in aid of the Elephant Family charity, set up by Mark Shand, brother of the Duchess of Cornwall, to help save the Asian elephant from extinction.

Gerald was moved from Selfridges to the charity's Bloomsbury HQ, where staff were besieged with calls and emails from elephant fans who have been tracking the sculptures across the capital, desperate to find Gerald and take his picture.


Elephant with Tower Bridge in the background

After a "Free Gerald" Facebook group was set up to trace him, the charity decided to let visitors in to take a snapshot. Mr Shand said: "We had put him near the staff entrance at Selfridges because we thought he would keep the adults company and not offend anyone, but he offended everyone. So we brought him back to the office but we got two or three hundred emails and phone calls asking, 'Where is Gerald?'


Elephant with the Houses of Parliament in the background.

"Then a Facebook campaign started. All we could do was offer appointments to come and take a picture. More than 200 people turned up and we let them in one by one." Now John Stephen, co-owner of Chinawhite nightclub in Fitzrovia, has offered Gerald a home. "He said he belonged there," said Mr Shand. "All Gerald wants is a roof over his head." The statue will be on public display at Chinawhite between 1pm and 2pm on Monday. It will stay at the club until June 30. Sotheby's will auction the elephants, at the Royal Hospital Chelsea, between June 29 and July 4 in a bid to raise £1million.



Each model has been decorated by a different artist or celebrity, including Tommy Hilfiger and Sir Terence Conran. Secretary Petra Jirusova, 32, from south-east London, who set up the Free Gerald Facebook group, said she has now photographed all 258 elephants. "This quest of finding them takes you to parts of London you may never visit," she added. "It's great fun."

For the full story on the 2010 Elephant Parade in London see;

http://daithaic.blogspot.com/2010/05/elephants-of-old-london-town.html



The crowd to see the "Blue Elephant" at Elephant Family charity in Bloomsbury