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| Bronze elephant cast in India. Photo: Christopher Griffin Image courtesy of Christopher Griffin |
I first saw Christopher's elephants at Nuit Blanche Ottawa in September 2012, and was quite taken with them. They were the first thing I saw that night, and I really liked the interactive nature of his installation. Not only were there waist-high concrete elephants made by Christopher, but members of the public were also invited to shape small elephants in clay to leave behind.
The concept behind the installation, which he'd called Life is Beautiful, was that it "would be beautiful to discover a herd of elephants flourishing and increasing in numbers" and to "have the public create small clay elephants to cling to the backs of Mother Ship elephants for safety." At the time, I was nearing the end of my original Elephant a Day blog, and I can't count the number of friends who asked me the following day if I'd seen Christopher's elephants. I'm glad I could say yes, or I would have been mighty disappointed.
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| Little clay elephants on the back of one of the Nuit Blanche elephants. Photo: Christopher Griffin Image courtesy of Christopher Griffin |
The installation was swamped when I happened by, so I didn't get to make an elephant that evening. I remembered his elephants of course, but thought little more about them until I happened to be driving down Gladstone Avenue with a friend. Suddenly there they were, milling about alongside his studio.
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| Concrete elephant. Photo: Christopher Griffin Image courtesy of Christopher Griffin |
Although Christopher's elephants are highly stylized, my friend recognized them right away for what they were, and said—only half-jokingly, I think—that we should put party hats on them and take photographs. Instead, I decided to contact Christopher to see if he'd mind my featuring him on this blog.
Christopher is a local artist who paints, in addition to working in concrete and other sculptural materials. Many of his paintings feature stylized animals in a bold style that particularly appeals to someone like me, since I tend to be a bid timid about going bold.
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| Nepean Street Herd—Ottawa Street Series 2013 Mixed media on canvas Photo: Christopher Griffin Source: http://www.christophergriffin.ca/gallery.html |
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| Black HareAsphalt, concrete and oil on canvas Photo: Christopher Griffin Source: http://www.christophergriffin.ca/gallery1.html |
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| Walking the Dog (2008) Oil on canvas Photo: Christopher Griffin Source: http://www.christophergriffin.ca/gallery2.html |
Part of Christopher's work also includes concrete friezes, created directly on the sides of buildings. In fact, Christopher became famous here about five years ago for having decorated all four sides of his home with concrete, incised with wild and wonderful figures and patterns. Since then, he's gone on to decorate a number of local buildings in a similar way. One of my favourites is this raccoon—part of a frieze on a local privacy wall, which was a rather unprepossessing brick before Christopher got his creative hands on it.
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| Raccoon from righthand side of concrete frieze at 441 Maclaren Street, Ottawa—October 2012 Photo: David Barbour Source: http://www.christophergriffin.ca/concrete.html |
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| Raccoon frieze at 441 Maclaren Street, Ottawa—October 2012 Photo: David Barbour Source: http://www.christophergriffin.ca/concrete.html |
About his work, Christopher has written:
I am inspired by ancient artwork on cave walls, children's art and random markings on concrete sidewalks, roads and buildings. I find the immediacy, confidence and lack of pretense in their character very appealing. I emulate this chaotic beauty in the surfaces of my own work with a description I call "visual noise". Scribbles, gestural markings and accidentals mirror our hectic, image-laden society and provide the spark of inspiration for me. I often use bird, fish and animal motifs in my work because they represent the pure, the innocent and the spiritual.
In addition to making his own elephants, Christopher often donates his time to schools and special events, encouraging people to make clay elephants as a way of exploring their creativity. I particularly love the two elephants below, made by students in a Grade 3 class.
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| Elephant by unknown artist—Grade 3 class, First Avenue Public School, Ottawa. Photo: Christopher Griffin Image courtesy of Christopher Griffin |
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| Elephant by Kalyna Griffin—Grade 3 class, First Avenue Public School, Ottawa. Photo: Christopher Griffin Image courtesy of Christopher Griffin |
Christopher's elephants have appeared around the world in recent years, from India to Mexico. And sometimes his smaller elephants show up in rather eccentric places. Which, I'm pretty sure, is exactly where elephants like to be.
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| Elephant at the beach in Yelapa, Mexico. Photo: Christopher Griffin Image courtesy of Christopher Griffin |
Over the past decade or more, Christopher's paintings and sculptures have been featured in solo and group exhibitions across North America. To see more of his work, visit his website at www.christophergriffin.ca
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| Elephant in drainpipe, Rideau Canal, Ottawa—February 2013. Photo: Christopher Griffin Image courtesy of Christopher Griffin |
Elephant Lore of the Day
Since Christopher's elephants have shown up Mexico, I thought I'd write today about Precolumbian elephant sculptures.Although scientists are fairly certain elephants have never roamed Central and South America, there are a number of Precolumbian finds that may suggest otherwise. If not elephants, perhaps the memory of some elephant-like antecedent was passed down through generations of artisans—until the representations became so stylized that it's become easy to dismiss them as anything but elephants.
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| Archaeologist Alfred Maudslay's drawing of glyphs at Copan, Honduras, A.D. 400–800. In recent years, it has been suggested that the creatures on either side are blue macaws, which are indigenous to the region. Source: http://resrustica.blogspot.ca/2010/02/elephant-glyphs-at-copan.html |
There is a lot of vaguely kooky speculation out there about the possibility of elephants lurking in South American jungles—and even roaming open lands in the United States—as recently as 500 years ago. Most scientists, however, believe that anything resembling an elephant died out in the Americas at least 10,000 years ago.
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| Precolumbian figure (no date given) described in an auction catalogue as a "coati head fragment." Source: http://s8int.com/WordPress/wp-images/pre%20co%20elephant.jpg |
Not being a scientist, archaeologist or crypto-zoologist, I'll let you make up your own mind about this well-known trio of Precolumbian "elephants". To read one of the more comprehensive online articles featuring ancient elephants in the Americas, click here.
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| Elephant-shaped pot (no date given) described by its home museum as a "toy". Collection of the Museo antropolgía de Xalapa, Xalapa, Mexico Photo: Zecharia Sitchin Source: http://www.sitchin.com/elephant.htm |
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