I Just Love What You've Done With Your Elephant!

When I first saw this photo, I thought it was one of those anti-drinking ads:


In fact it was one of those weird art projects by some guy who was trying to make a point about world poverty:

When the enigmatic British artist Banksy decided to install an elaborately painted elephant — a real one — in a warehouse southeast of downtown L.A., he drew a contingent of Hollywood admirers.

Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie, among other stars, were spotted at the Thursday evening opening of the outsized exhibit by an artist known for graffiti-sprinkled work, acts of mischief and never appearing at his own exhibits or granting interviews.

The warehouse was decorated as a living room, complete with furniture, chandelier and the standing Indian elephant.

Cards were handed out explaining: "There's an elephant in the room. There's a problem we never talk about. The fact is that life isn't getting any fairer…. 20 billion people live below the poverty line."

Apparently the promoters of this event haven't read the local papers lately, because if they had they would have seen numerous stories about the animal rights folks who have long objected to keeping elephants (in their original grey) at the Los Angeles Zoo. From what I've seen, the protesters are out in front of the zoo nearly every day. Painting one like Victorian wallpaper and putting it in an art display certainly wasn't going to make the artist any friends among the animal rights wackos.

This also created some problems for the local city officials who approved the exhibit:

Banksy happens to have set up his exhibit in a city with a vocal animal welfare contingent, one that has spent months criticizing the L.A. Zoo's handling of elephants and is still mourning the death three months ago of the zoo's beloved pachyderm Gita. Activists believe that elephants, which roam miles in the wild, don't begin to get their physical needs met in the confines of a zoo — let alone a downtown warehouse.

Perhaps Banksy didn't know this, perhaps he did or perhaps he didn't care. Whatever the case, the artist's employment of an elephant in a downtown warehouse had activists e-mailing one another and prompted a rebuke from a city official.

"I think it sends a very wrong message that abusing animals is not only OK, it's an art form," said Ed Boks, general manager of Los Angeles Animal Services. "We find it no longer acceptable to dye baby chicks at Easter, but it's OK to dye an elephant."

Boks found himself decrying the presence of the elephant in the exhibit even though his agency had issued the two permits necessary to have the elephant there — "to my chagrin," he said. He tried late Friday to revoke the permits on grounds of public safety.

"Some of the experts I've talked to have told me there's no way of predicting when an elephant will go berserk," he said. "We want to do what's right by the public and the animal."

However, Boks would have to give five days' notice to revoke the permits. And in five days, the exhibit will be gone. It is to run today and Sunday from about noon to 8 p.m.

After much hue and cry from the animal rights crowd, the elephant has now been returned to her original hue and no longer blends into the wallpaper.

Too bad - it was a good look for her. Very slimming.