The Elephant House

The Elephant House is the nickname for a house on Yarmouth Road in the Dovercourt-Wallace Emerson neighbourhood of Toronto, Canada, which has a sculpture of an elephant in its front garden. [ [http://www.agilitynut.com/critters/ele.html "Big critters"] , agilitynut.com. Retrieved 29 January 2008.] The sculpture was made by Toronto artist Matt Donovan, while he was a student.Bielski, Zosia. [http://www.canada.com/cityguides/toronto/story.html?id=f76d092e-f520-4133-be8e-9771ad648801&k=48291 "Home on the strange: odd abodes celebrated"] , "National Post", 12 August 2006. Retrieved 28 January 2008.]

History

The sculpture of the Elephant was created in 1999 by Matt Donovan as part of his thesis project at Ontario College of Art and Design. It has a fibreglass body, coated with auto body filler, over a plywood skeleton. It was originally part of an installation, which included a bronze red herring and a flock of life-size concrete black sheep; two of the latter were given to a professor, the herring kept by Donovan, and the elephant stored in his parents' basement.

In 2003, it was obtained by Mr Lawson, a University of Toronto IT specialist and new home owner, who said, "From the moment I saw it, it just made me laugh." He reports about 20 cars a day stopping to look at the sculpture and people approaching his front door "more frequently than I want."

There have been several radio, TV and newspaper articles about the elephant, along with some other neighborhood oddities such as an Albino Carreira's nearby house on Clinton covered in tiny wood cylinders and Andy Parashosh's Greek-temple style house on Shaw Street.

ee also

*History of sculpture

Notes and references

External links

* [http://flickr.com/photos/emface/844305152/ Photo of the sculpture]
* [http://www.historymachines.com/ Matt Donovan and Hallie K. Siegel official web site]