Rediscovering the Elephant

Author Note: I am sorry about the lack of updates! The last couple weeks of the trip became hectic and exhausting, so the blogs took a backseat to the experience. I wrote bits and pieces of these blogs on the trip, but it took getting home to finally finishing them. I hope you enjoy!
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Day one in Boston, we took advantage of the Institute of Contemporary Art’s “Free Admission Thursday”, which turned out to be a great experience for all of us, whether we are art lovers or not. The main gallery featured the work of Shepard Fairey, a contemporary artist best known for his “HOPE” portrait of Barak Obama during the presidential campaign, but a smaller installation, focused on short films, really caught my eye.



A film by Javier Tellez called “Letter on the Blind, for the Use of Those Who See” featured six individuals with severe visual impairment, each taking turns touching a live elephant for the first time. A whistle would blow, and one by one they would approach the creature, running their hands over its skin, gauging its size, getting to know its personality through touch.

The cinematography was quiet, poignant in stark black and white with close ups of the elephant’s rough skin undulating with each breath, but the true beauty was in their commentary. Each person approached the elephant and came away with a different impression. One was amazed, whispering over and over “you are beautiful…” as he circled the creature. One was more timid, describing the elephants rippling ears as “like curtains to a mansion” but admitting he was afraid of it, afraid it might trample him. One man was nearly silent as he traced his fingers around its belly, but said afterward, “I wouldn’t do it again.” A woman giggled with nervous glee as she curled her hands down his trunk. “It’s like an ocean in here….you can feel the power and the strength, but you can also feel the tenderness.”

It struck me as I watched the film that this is what we are doing on this trip. Each of us approaches this country without any idea of what we’ll find. We have some of our own experiences, and we each see through our own lenses, but ultimately we’ll see different parts of the same cities.

This seemed obvious as we spent our time in Boston for the Fourth of July. Such a quintessential American holiday in such a cornerstone of American history was sure to bring out some mixed opinions from within the group.

We’ll each come away with different impressions of what we liked and disliked. Some of us might want to keep searching. Others might want to leave. But hopefully between the 12 of us we’ll find something that looks like an elephant.