Super PACyderm – Silver Spring, Maryland - Atlas Obscura
Super PACyderm is permanently closed.

Super PACyderm

An allegorical sculpture in Maryland wears the artist’s politics on its trunk. 

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A large, upside-down elephant with red skin and yellow hair sits in front of artist Howard Connelly’s home in Silver Spring, Maryland. The sculpture, titled “Super PACyderm,” is a not-so-subtle statement about the artist’s opinion of the Republican Party.

Using an old fiberglass elephant that used to be displayed on a local street corner, Connelly flipped the pacyderm on its back to symbolize what he feels Donald Trump has done to the U.S. presidency: turned it upside down. It rests on an inflexible base (see what he did there) of concrete slabs marked with dots that symbolize the ballot.

A gas line in the elephant’s leg is “like an IV trying to keep the GOP alive,” the artist told the Washington Post. And a giant shield attempts to block the U.S. from further damage.

Connelly sees art as a way to evoke empathy. He’s responsible for plenty of less political pieces installed throughout Maryland, but “Super PACyderm” is likely his most popular.

Know Before You Go

Visible from the car on New Hampshire Ave, but to walk up to it, park behind Clip's Barber Shop or Tiempo de Gracia Ministries on either side. The shops next to it look sketchy, but Noodle King is a local Chinese takeout gem, and the nursery across the residential road is great too!

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