Kendra Haste: Galvanised elephant gets a royal pamper

It has been ten years since British sculptor, Kendra Haste, was commissioned a royally wild project by Historic Royal Palaces to populate the Tower of London with her Royal Menagerie. Life-size lions, baboobs, a polar bear and an elephant, each made from galvanised wire, roam the historic site and help to bring the story of the real exotic animals kept at the Tower in the 12th Century. Last month, Haste took to social media to post images of her infamous wire elephant enjoying its biennial clean. She commented that the elephant is, “now looking perfect again,” while art dealer colleague, Patrick Davies, joked, “looking beautiful can be hard work, especially if you’re an elephant. [Haste’s] galvanised wire head had been primped, brushed, scrubbed and generally titivated to within an inch of its life. Looking pretty again.”