Welcome to the Jungle

Mon, 5 Sep 2011 | By Emily Gosling

Elephants, tigers and crocodiles aren’t the first things you’d except to see roaming the streets of Edinburgh.

However, as of tomorrow, these critters -  alongside many more - will be taking to the streets in life-size fibreglass sculpture form, raising money for their real-life, endangered counterparts.

The Jungle City scheme aims to raise £1 million for charity Elephant Family. Following their outing in the city, the 130 pieces will be sold in online or live auctions at the end of this month.

Artists and designers including graffiti artists, stencil artists, mosaic artists, fine artists, jewellery designers and fashion designers have created the animals. Among those involved are illustrator Stuart D Fallon , artist Patrick Hughes,  ceramicist Emma Bridgewater, artist Marc Quinn, homeware company House of Hackney and some more unusual contributors including Rangers football club and Geri Halliwell.

All the colours arrive courtesy of Farrow & Ball, which has donated paint for the event. Fashion houses have made their contribution in the form of the Conservation Couture element, which will see the Asian elephant sculpture bedecked in couture blankets, helping them to acclimatise to there chilly Scottish environs.

The Sumatran Orang-utan Society’s addition is an orang-utan named Hati - meaning ‘heart’ in Indonesian  created by eco-artist Caz Haigh.. Helen Buckland, UK director of Sumatran Orang-utan Society, says, ‘We’re so pleased with our sculpture – it’s bright, eye-catching and really does express how vibrant and diverse orang-utan habitat is.’

Haigh adds, ‘It’s certainly the largest piece I’ve worked on! There’s only so much you can plan on paper; seeing the sculpture for the first time revealed lots more nooks and crannies to consider. I really enjoyed finding out about all the different plants and animals native to the Sumatran jungle.

‘Positioning all of the creatures was a fun task too; I decided to play on the idea of predators hunting prey so certain creatures are stalking others, while some hide in the undergrowth.’

Bidding for the online auction runs from September 22 - October 2; while the live auction will take place on September 29.  For more information visit http://www.jungle-city.org/

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