Hot-air balloon in the skies of Australia

June, 6 2013 • 10:00

Posted inEvents

Internationally acclaimed Australian artist Patricia Piccinini has unveiled her latest work to celebrate the centenary of Canberra with a hot-air balloon sculpture called “The Skywhale”. 

 

 

 Image by Sean Davey

 

 

With a height of 23m and length of 34m, it is twice as large as a normal hot-air balloon and uses more than 3.5km of fabric and 3.3 million stitches.

 

 

 Image by Martin Ollman

 

 

The shape of the hot-air balloon has raised quite e few eyebrows, though the inspiration, as explained by Patricia, is connected to the city of Canberra and its relation with the natural environment:

 

"My question is what if evolution went a different way [and] we evolved a nature that could fly instead of swim. Coming from a place like Canberra where it's a planned city that's really tried to integrate and blend in with the natural environment, it makes a lot of sense to make this sort of huge, gigantic, but artificial and natural-looking creature."

 

 

 

 

The Skywhale is now in flight towards Hobart in Tanzania and back to Melbourne later in the year, but don’t worry, hopefully it will soon appear in galleries, festivals and balloon festivals throughout Australia and the world!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Image by Martin Ollman