Banksys Elephant

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Intermediate; Upper intermediate (B1 - B2)

Teens; Adults
20 minutes + homework
Picturetelling
Street art
Look like; Detailed description of objects
Image and text

BANKSYS ELEPHANT by Jamie Keddie

Preparation, materials and equipment

1.!
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For this activity, you will need a photograph of Banksys water tank elephant. The
image can be downloaded here. This piece of street art appeared in Los Angeles in
early 2011. Banksy is a British graffiti artist.

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(Optional) Select a few photographs of street art. See the link to the Wikipedia entry
in the !box below.

Note: Street art usually refers to visual art in public spaces (see
Wikipedia entry here). It can refer to traditional graffiti, stencil graffiti,
street poster art, sticker art, guerrilla art, street installations, etc. It
generally doesnt refer to territorial graffiti, vandalism or corporate art.

3.!

Make a print of the Image and Text sheet on page 4.

Lesson plan
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Ask students if they like street art. If necessary, show some photographs (see
Preparation, materials and equipment above). Ask students if they can!describe
any specific examples of street art from their / your environment.

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Tell students that you have a photograph of a piece of street art. Tell them that you
want to describe it to them. Use the Image and Text sheet (page 4) for this
purpose.
Notes:
As you hold the Image and Text sheet in front of you, make sure that students
cant see what is on it. It should be for your eyes only.
Also, to ensure that students cant see through the sheet, hold it on top of a book.
The idea is that that you are looking at an image and describing it to students. In
other words, it should not be apparent that you are reading from a text. Try
familiarising yourself with the text and rehearsing how you are going to deliver it.
Repeat the description a number of times. This will allow students to strengthen
the mental images that they develop.

BANKSYS ELEPHANT by Jamie Keddie

3.!

Ask students to consider the following questions:

As you visualise the water tank, what kind of animal do you imagine it could look
like?
Specifically, how has the artist changed the object? In other words, what has he
done to draw our attention to its animal resemblance?

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Let students share and compare their ideas.

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After asking students for their suggestions and discussing ideas, show students the
actual image of Banksys water tank elephant.

Follow up 1
Dictate the following sentences and draw students attention to the
look like + noun / clause structure:

It looks like some kind of water tank.!

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It looks like it was designed to be pulled by a tractor.!
It looks like it has been abandoned.!
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It looks a bit like an elephant.!
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I think it looks nothing like an elephant.! !
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I think it looks more like a camel.! !
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(noun)
(clause)
(clause)
(noun)
(noun)
(noun)

Ask students to express their opinions about the water tank. Do they agree with the artist
or do they have different ideas? Encourage students to make use of the dictated
structures.

Follow up 2
Banksys water tank elephant found itself at the heart of a story about ownership, overlypriced art and homelessness. Ask students to go online and find out who or what each of
the following are and how they are connected:

Banksy
Mint Currency
Tachowa Covington
Calex

Students can then write a summary which explains the people, the companies and the
events involved in the elephant water tank story. Click here for an article.

BANKSYS ELEPHANT by Jamie Keddie

Image and Text

This is a photograph of a piece of art. I suppose you would call it

street art although the work isnt in a street - its an object on the
side of a road - a highway to be exact - in Los Angeles. The object
is, I think, a piece of farm equipment - it looks like some kind of
water tank. It looks like it was designed to be pulled by a tractor. It is
long and cylindrical, it is made of metal and its got wheels. Its
supported by a number of vertical structures - lets call them legs.
The water tank is white and its got a horizontal pipe sticking out the
end. Its old and it looks like it has been abandoned. I imagine that
the artist drove past the object and saw it as an opportunity. He
clearly thinks that it looks like a certain type of animal and in order
to draw our attention to this similarity, he has added something to it.
In other words, he has made a subtle change to the object.
BANKSYS ELEPHANT by Jamie Keddie