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Lyn Gardner
Saturday May 6, 2006
The Guardian

"If art is about transformations, there is no more transforming experience than The Sultan's Elephant, a large-scale outdoor free spectacle produced by French company Royal de Luxe. This is a show that disrupts the spectacle of everyday life and transforms the city from an impersonal place of work and business into a place of play and community. It does something very simple and important: it makes you feel incredibly happy and it gives you permission to let your imagination take flight. It turns us all into beautiful dreamers with silly grins on our faces."
B Elephant
Our first, exciting, glimpse of the elephant
X Girl
The girl towers over the crowd
"The elephant is a time-travelling beast that belongs to the sultan who - accompanied by his exotic retinue - has come to our world in search of a little girl. The little girl is a puppet the size of a house.
The elephant trumpets so noisily that on Friday afternoon sunbathers in St James' Park, oblivious to what was going on, enquired whether there might be a circus in town.

What the Sultan's Elephant represents is nothing less than an artistic occupation of the city and a reclamation of the streets for the people."
C Elephant spray
The elephant sprays the crowd with water!
D Controller
Controlled by cute Frenchmen. Lucky elephant.
F G Elephant.jpg
George and the Elephant
E Controller
Another cute controller
A reader
This man with impressive arms was a voracious reader.
G N Elephant.jpg
Nick holds the souvenir paper.
L Scooter
The girl's scooter, abandoned near the Horse Parade
H Cops.jpg
Policemen look on with awe.
I Controllers.jpg
A cool, futuresque look at the inner workings of the elephant
U Girl.jpg
The girl snoozes in the park. Remember: official lunchtime for Frenchmen is 12.30. We thought it was wonderful that, even in London, they just abandoned the elephant to go and eat lunch.
J Woman.jpg
One for the handful of straight men who find this site:
One of the sultan's retinue gets bathed on top of the elephant.
K Cute Man.jpg
And one for the thousands of women and gay men who find this site.
M Rocket.jpg
The sultan's party arrived in this rocket ship. The London Eye is in the background.
N Jogger.jpg
Fleeing from the elephant

O Guard
A nice shot of one of the guards that Lucille Ball would have tried to make laugh.
P N Bear.jpg
Nick poses with Bear Street in the background.
Q Superman.jpg
Another Superman sighting!
R N flowers.jpg
Nick outside Buckingham Palace
S Flowers.jpg
Flowers in St. James Park
T G Flowers.jpg
George with the tulips
W Cute man.jpg
A man and his dog
V Cute man.jpg
A man checks his camera
Y Mural.jpg
This street artist was near the Royal Festival Hall
Za Nick
An installation that moved and made sounds when you walked by.
Z Nick.jpg
Nick activates the whirling circle.

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