A public art project to raise funds for the national animal.
For six weeks earlier this year, the city of London was the site of a novel public art-cum-charity project called “Elephant Parade”. Two hundred and fifty eight elephants, large, painted and decorated beautifully were put up at venues all around the city — one stood beside the stature of Beau Brummel in Jermyn Street, there were four on Soho Square; Bayswater, Belgravia, Greenwich, Green Park had a few and so on. And then in early July, they were auctioned raising as much as £1 million, which went to 20 charities working to save the elephant.
Now Delhi is to have its version of the Elephant Parade, only it’s dedicated to the tiger, whose numbers have been dwindling alarmingly of late. Sometime in mid-December, 57 fibreglass tigers worked upon by well-known contemporary artists such as Anjolie Ela Menon, Paresh Maiti, G R Iranna, Vivek Vilasini and Anandjit Ray, will be installed at 52 locations all over the city. There’ll be one at Shanti Path, some at the metro stations and parks around the city, at hospitals, malls, multiplexes and so on.
“We want to raise awareness among the public because it’s only then that we can make a difference,” says Aparajita Jain, director of the city-based Seven Art Gallery who, along with art collector Swapan Seth and social activist Nandita Kathpalia Baig conceived of the project. The 6 ft tall tigers — Menon’s, which she will dedicate to the city, will be larger — will be out in the open for four months.
They will then go to the 56 corporate patrons of the project who have paid Rs 1.5 lakh to book each. There’ll be a lucky draw held on December 19 at the Taj Mansingh hotel, conducted, interestingly by the head boy and girl of Vasant Valley School, to determine which company gets which sculpture.
The money raised will go to the Ranthambhore Foundation, the NGO run by Valmik Thapar, and will be used to empower the women and educate the children of the local “poaching tribes”. Hopefully doing so will give the tiger a better stab at evading extinction.