Elephants Heard

Eliza Wierwight, I noted recently, is using her artistic skills to help rescue and heal Asian elephants that are being appallingly mistreated. She created holiday elephant topiaries that she's selling at her store Patron, with all proceeds going to the Save Elephant Foundation in Thailand. So far she's raised enough money to sponsor 12 elephants, about a third of her goal of 35 elephants. As I wrote then, connecting art to a socio-political cause is a remarkable step for any artist, and it's impressive how far she's already succeeded in her goal -- in more ways than one.

Now her project is taking much larger form. The Linden Endowment for the Arts (LEA) has granted Eliza a sim for a short time (how long isn't clear), where she's built an entire installation called 35 Elephants. The sim opens on the 21st. She invited me to preview it, and since it was a preview, a few things may change by the time the sim opens, but these photos will be close. (All captions are my interpretation -- Eliza may want to correct me. Click the photos to enlarge.)

"Tomb" underneath the landing point	Entrance hall lined by negative-image guardian elephants
Scene from a chair at the back of the grassland	A sort of macabre circus
A small herd at a mud pond	A lake stained with blood

Eliza's approach is striking in several respects. Naturally, as in nearly all issue-oriented art, she has many photos of elephants, including old black-and-whites in the "circus" area. One photo includes the founder of the Save Elephant Foundation, Lek Chailert. There are a few placards and postcards as well. None of this is unusual. But Eliza hasn't simply created a poster display, and she doesn't incessantly bludgeon the viewer with images of horribly treated elephants. Sometimes, in fact, what speaks most forcefully is not an elephant at all. The bloodied lake is an example -- it's perhaps the profoundest moment in the entire work, saying so much with so little.

What most markedly distinguishes this installation from the usual efforts at political art is that Eliza has approached it as art, not simply as publicity for a cause. If you entered the installation without knowing who the artist is, you might quickly guess that it's Eliza's. Her hand is visible everywhere -- in the skill and style of the texturing, and especially in the imagery itself. There are two motifs: the huge glowing chains that line the entrance hall and reappear elsewhere; and the sharp needles that you can see surrounding the "circus" like the bars of a cage but also like spears (these too appear elsewhere). And defying the obvious, the chains never hold down the elephants themselves, nor do the spears ever pierce or directly threaten them. Like the bloodied lake, it is enough that we see them and understand their meaning.  Eliza understands the power of allusion (to be technical, metonymy). And the strange "circus" (or whatever one might call it), with its distorted checkerboard floor, has elements that say "Eliza" particularly clearly: the spinning clocks, the huge chain dangling from nowhere, the elephants standing on floating platforms, the black elephant with a red blanket on its back, the cage bars/spears. Eliza's best work always has an enigmatic quality, and we see some of it here, as well as in the allusive character of the chains and spears. Admittedly, in my view the "circus" section doesn't hold together as a whole -- which is so un-Eliza that I wonder if it's intentional. (Maybe the mishmash is a visual pun: "Jumble the Elephant"?) In any case, considered in its entirety, 35 Elephants easily strides into the narrow circle of works in Second Life that succeed both artistically and politically.

I want to add a note about LEA's role. One of its guidelines is that people can't sell things on its sims -- it's not meant to support commercial ventures. LEA somewhat pushed the limits of its non-commercialism when it provided a sim to the Portuguese Tourist Board (or something of that ilk), which installed what many of us felt was a pretty dreadful advertisement. In the case of 35 Elephants, LEA has pushed its limits in another direction, by allowing a sim to be devoted to a non-profit project encouraging donations to a cause (I believe one still has to go to Patron to purchase the topiary elephant). I haven't always agreed with LEA's decisions (of course for that matter, neither have all of its members), but in this case I think the LEA committee deserves credit, applause, and thanks.

The opening will be Saturday, 21 Dec, 11:30 AM (SLT), with a benefit by Joaquin Gustav. And donate whatever you can, whether you buy a topiary or simply give money. I think you'll agree that the elephants need you more than you need new shoes.