Festive Britain

A reflection of a different and marvelous Britain was seen on last Bank Holiday Monday. A glorious, colourful herd of “elephants” took by surprise the streets of London in an effort to raise GBP2 million toward the conservation of Asian elephants and UK conservation charities. Nothing to do with the grey old world of politics – these are elephants, as big as real life baby elephants, glittering with all the decorative genius that some of the country’s top artists can supply. One of the most popular elephants is likely to be Benjamin Shine’s contribution – so much so that arrangements have already been made for it to be covered by a 24-hour guard at its location by the Royal Exchange. Shine, a young artist, has transformed the template into a glossy black taxi, powered by a solar cell so that a sign lights up at night and its eyes turn into headlamps. Another is a white-coloured elephant beside an enormous bronze flower, also white, by the sculptor Mark Quinn, one of four elephants generously sponsored by the Indian private equity investor Cyrus Vandrevalaand his heiress wife, Priya. The object of the parade is to help raise money for the conservation of Asian elephants, whose numbers are dwindling even more severely than those of the African elephant, from 200,000 a century ago to a fifth of that population now. To raise money, each of the elephants has been sponsored and will be auctioned.