Yesterday my husband and I finally made it into Boston to see a herd of elephants on Commonwealth Avenue: the very last day of The Great Elephant Migration which brought 100 elephants to the Back Bay. They had been there since August 8, and there had been many fine days between then and now, but we just couldn’t manage to get in to see them. Yesterday was humid and very rainy: we were both soaked in the short time we walked among the elephants, but it was worth it. They really do represent a very moving plea for “coexistence” and as everyone told me, each seemed very different and possessed of individual personalities. Still, they were a herd, and that gave them a lot of power and presence.
As a public art project, the Great Migration is impressive in scale and breadth but also in craftsmanship. A community of over 200 South Indian artists under the direction of the CoExistence Collective formed these elephants from Lantana camara, a toxic invasive weed in their landscape—their creations represent both the beneficial clearance of forests and the beauty of the very same animals (along with others) that will benefit from this clearance at the same time. Very cool. The Lantana camara certainly seemed impervious to the rain! The elephants made their debut in Newport, Rhode Island in 2024 and are now off to California: you can see photographs of their past stops here. If they come near you, don’t wait for a rainy day!
