Elephant in the Room was sculpted by Hannah Stewart and designed by Chierol Lai.
A sleeping baby elephant cast out of bronze resin is a sculpture designed to raise awareness and even help with one's mental health. The elephant being the metaphorical idiom for problems no one wants to talk about and sleeping baby for the tranquillity and innocence.
Raise money for mental health support by buying your own sculpture. £200 from the sale of each bronze resin "Elephant in the Room" will be donated to Mind (Registered Charity Number 219830). Email me if you would like to place an order, £750 each.
This sculpture can be found on one of the benches in the busy Library Square, which is the heart of Queen Mary University of London. The specific placement and location allows for maximum effectiveness and interaction between people and elephant. With students coming in and out of the library after hours of work, possibly feeling stressed or simply need some fresh air, can sit next to the baby elephant and keep each other company. They can stroke it like one would stroke their pet. Should multiple people sit around the sculpture, it acts as encouragement to talk to each other about anything that is bothering them.
The material choice, cast bronze resin, is what encourages interaction between the public and sculpture. Bronze resin allows the baby elephant to look more realistic due to its similar colouring but it is also a material that becomes more and more shiny and golden depending on frequency of people caressing it. Just like how people change this sculpture can change over time as well.
With this sculpture I hope to achieve the normalisation of mental health and to remove the stigma. Most importantly, whether you are going through a hard time or not, the sleeping baby elephant is just there to keep you company and to help you feel more at peace.
