After last year's hugely successful Elephant Parade in London, Elephant Family are now fervently counting down to this summer's exciting programme in Edinburgh, Scotland. The Jungle City event will celebrate creative talent in Scotland, England and the rest of the world, bringing artists, designers and celebrities - Emma Bridgewater, Professor Gordon Murray, Marc Quinn and Harvey Nichols to name a few - together to produce one hundred and thirty life size sculptures of some of the planet's most endangered species.
Below are a few photos from the Jungle City London artist studio where elephants, tigers, orangutans, crocodiles and hornbills are being transformed into wild designs of the imagination with the hope of raising £1 million for their survival around the world. For those of you planning to be in Edinburgh this summer, Jungle City will launch on 16th August at the Royal Botanic Gardens to coincide with the city's world famous Fringe Festival, followed by a series of interventions across Edinburgh's streets, institutions and public spaces from 6th September that will include my very own design Tribal Tigris (Urban Jungle, May 2011).
Visit the official website for Elephant Family here to learn more about their international effort of protecting endangered elephants and conserving their natural habitats across Asia. View one of the organisation's awareness videos below that describes the threats on forests that are being drastically minimised by human activity through force and conflict. If this barbaric behaviour continues the world's Asian Elephant population will frighteningly disappear altogether within thirty years.
Follow this project and many more @JMVELARDI throughout the summer!
