Jungle City is in full swing in Edinburgh and after the hugely successful exhibition at the Royal Botanic Gardens (In The Wild: Jungle City, August 2011), the animals have been unleashed onto the streets of the city for the month of September before all one hundred and thirty crocodiles, orangutans, hornbills, tigers and elephants are auctioned by Sotheby's Scotland on 29th September at The Great Jungle City Gathering gala held at The National Museum of Scotland.
Tribal Tigris has been standing proudly on the popular cobbled promenade of Grassmarket in the historic Old Town of Edinburgh - here are a few photos of my tiger, which has been generously sponsored by BT, in situ in this area of the city known for its independent retailers and eclectic watering holes.
Keeping Tribal Tigris company is the World Wildlife Fund's Barcode Tiger which has been created in partnership with the People's Postcode Lottery. The playful yet powerful design of barcode stripes reflects the conflicts tigers face between the natural and commercial world, and highlights the tragic reality of illegal trading of tigers and other endangered animals. I'm honoured that my tiger has been installed next to the WWF UK's contribution to this year's Jungle City event - my own inspiration for Tribal Tigris explores the immortalisation of a tiger into logos and mascots within the commercial world, when in reality the species is being driven to extinction - both tigers complement one another in both style and statement and add a dash of the exotic to their historic surroundings of Grassmarket.
If you are interested in bidding for Tribal Tigris you can register your interest online here at the official Elephant Family eBay page - bids for all the unique and life size animal creations will open on 22nd September at 10am and will close on 2nd October at 5pm. Elephant Family are aiming to raise £1million to support their own charity work for Asian elephants as well as supporting the work of six UK conservation charities - Care for the Wild, Orangutan Foundation, Royal Botanic Gardens Edinburgh, Sumatran Orangutan Society, TRAFFIC and WWF Scotland.
Follow @JMVELARDI for more updates to the run up to the Jungle City auction - discover your wild side and get involved!
Images courtesy of Murray Horne
