Filipino's baby elephant fetched the highest price

Posted on: Jan 16, 2012

Elephant Parade is the world’s largest open-air exhibition dedicated to saving the Asian elephant from extinction. It has travelled many cities such as Amsterdam, London, Milan, and recently Singapore.

From 16th Nov 2011, 162 life-sized fibreglass baby elephants, each 1.5m tall, were on display in Singapore’s cityscape along Orchard Road, Marina Bay, VivoCity, and other venues. The elephants were painted and decorated by artists and celebrities.
And on 12th Jan 2012, the elephants were auctioned off.

Which baby elephant fetched the highest price? That would be Filipino artist Ronald Ventura’s Elephantasm which was sold for S$62,000.

Ventura went into 'elephantasm' mode in this sculpture. For ages, the elephant has represented strength, power and the indomitable. But the artist looked at the enduring symbol differently, presented a fiberglass depiction of an almost-skeletal piece of animal flesh, something headed toward a state of un-elephant-ness, totally something else. A parable for entropy? A riddle about physicality and decay? Ventura put the puzzling into parade.

Celebrities who also particapated in the event were Rupert Grint, Ricky Gervais, Leona Lewis, Solange Azagury-Patridge, Joss Stone, Paul Smith, and Dick Lee.

20% of the auction's proceeds went the Asian Elephant Foundation, and about 70% went to cover various costs.

Learn more about Elephant Parade.
For more of Ronald Ventura's work.

1 comments:

  1. http://www.33auction.com/catalogues/SG008/index.html

    Ronald Ventura's Zoomanities V (Lot 35) will be on auction on 3rd November 2012 at Auction 33 together with other SE Asian works.

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