I went down to the first day of the Canberra Balloon Festival yesterday morning. Skywhale was there, one of the many hot-air balloons to take off yesterday from the lawns in front of Old Parliament House. Now, Skywhale was launched last in 2013 after artist Patricia Piccinini was commissioned by the ACT Government to help celebrate the Centenary of Canberra. The balloon tours around representing Canberra to other capital cities and regional centres and causes a stir wherever it goes. What the f*ck it has to with Canberra I simply fail to understand and overall the artwork is not to my taste … but I do appreciate the nerve of it. I also like the way that it gets people talking about art … the point of it … spending public money on art et al … it gets people talking about art and it’s place in our culture and society and that is a good thing I believe.
Anyways, here’s a little photo-essay on the Skywhale. Enjoy 🙂
I am a fan of SkyWhale. I like her whimsy. I am sure she is wearing lipstick too. And am thinking humph to myself for missing seeing her (again). We watched her inflate and take to the air last year and the assembled crowd cheered. I blogged about her and surprising few bloggers did dislike her – or said so anyway.
And I love that we have art work popping up in this city – even though some of it is not to my taste.
She’s certainly an eyeful … would have looked spectacular this morning with clear skies too 🙂
Very interesting indeed. I used to kniow someone who was into ballooning – it is quite a “sport” and so beautiful to watch as they sail across the skies. Unfortunately I didn’t , at that time get a chance to fly – or at least, no-one propsed me to go up – but it would have been soo awesome. You are right art is art and any talk of it – especially beautiful, frivilous art – gives such joy to people and gets them chatting!! Thank you and see you again soon. Mari
Thanks Mari … I reckon you need to go find a balloon and take yourself up 🙂
ooooo, that might not be such a terrible notion??? mmm, I’ll have to see!!
kind of strange, this sky whale! but i like the picture with the blue sky a lot!
Thanks 🙂
It’s an odd-looking balloon to say the least! As you can likely imagine … it causes a stir wherever it goes 🙂
yeah, i totally can imagine 🙂
It’s particularly strange as it’s inflating 🙂
I looks kinda neat, and the top pic is amazing, but yes, what is the connection to Canberra???
Hehehe … it’s certainly ‘out there’! The general feeling is that the teats in some way represent the cargo cult of civil service suckling … the whale and turtle and bird references escape me! xo
wow! now that is different!!!! Goodyear should be that creative !
Yeah … now that would be cool! Thanks 🙂