GoGoGorillas is an outdoor animal art sculpture charity trail located in Norwich for eleven weeks this summer. The trail features fifty-three large gorillas (painted by local artists) around the streets in Norwich and sixty-seven smaller ones painted by schools and community groups.
At the end of the charity trail, the gorillas will be auctioned off to raise money for charities Break and Born Free Foundation. GoGoGorillas have been launched by Wild in Art; this group also brought previous events 'Go Elephants' and 'Stroll Discovery Trails', which I visited last year.
The gorilla sculptures also support tourism and local businesses. I visited them today, and many others had the same idea. Nearly everyone that I saw in Norwich today was looking for the gorillas.
My favoruite gorilla was probably the Transformers gorilla (known as Optimus Primate), although it was a tough decision as they were all very good. I liked this one the best as it reminds me of watching these cartoons when I was younger, and I felt that it was a very creative actualisation of the gorilla sculpture.
'Optimus Primate' by Yewtek
In fact, heroes seemed to feature a lot in the designs of the gorillas. Fictional characters such as Superman, Batman, and Iron Man were transformed into gorilla sculptures. In addition to fictional characters, real-life characters also made their mark. Such real-life heroes include Olympic medalist Bradley Wiggins and local celebrity Alan Partridge. However, the unsung heroes were also noted, such as builders and military heroes.
'Iron Ape' by Martin Wall
'Drilla the Gorilla' by Jessica Perry and Maggie Campbell; 'The Ape'd Crusader' by Jenny Leonard
'Bradley Wiggins' by Martin Wall
'Poppyland Hero' by Derek Blois
Other gorillas feature local heroes, such as this one for the Geoffrey Watling Charity.
'Geoffrey' by Sandy Jones
In addition to hereos, there were several creative gorillas that were more than simply painted. The two below include one made of chrome and one made to look like a tree.
'Chromilla' by Phil Daniels
'Skull Island' by Beau Townsend
Various other gorillas that I discovered and photographed are included below for readers to see the range of different styles.
'Guy' by Bridget Parsons; 'Nelson' by Mik Richardson; 'Yo'Man' by Phil Daniels; 'Whoop! Whoop!' by Daniel Hanton
'Norvic' by Norwich School Design Department
Nature and animals was a popular theme for most of the gorillas, and I have included some close-ups of some of the artwork on some of the gorillas below.
'Jungle Jenny' by Jenny Leonard; 'Walk on the Wild Side' by Pat Kennewell; 'Butch' by Stuart Roy
'Gerald' by Nathan Smith
For those who want to visit GoGoGorillas, they will only be around for another week in Norwich. They will be auctioned in October. For more information, visit the official website here: http://gogogorillas.co.uk/
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