The Cellar - May 12th, 2013: Skywhale

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May 12th, 2013: Skywhale

Back in 1901, the states of Australia decided to hook up and form a country. It was agreed that the capital mustn't be Sydney, but would be in a special territory carved out of New South Wales, somewhere between Sydney and Melbourne. In the meantime, Melbourne was the temporary capital, but after long searching, a site was chosen, and in 1913 the new capital city, Canberra, was founded.

Now it's 2013, and it's time to celebrate the 100th anniversary of this event. So we made a big hot-air balloon in the shape of a giant whale with ten enormous boobies hanging off it, and floated it over the city, because nothing says "100 years* of our nation's capital!" like a giant ten-titted skywhale.

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*actually, it says 300,000 dollars of our nation's capital, but it only murmurs that quietly.

Is there actually some significance to a ten tit whale?

It has...

...ten tits.

Okay.

Ummm....

Quote:

The artist says her inspiration came from the wonder of nature.

"My question is what if evolution went a different way and instead of going back into the sea, from which they came originally, they went into the air and we evolved a nature that could fly instead of swim," she said.

"In fact 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."

Piccinini says she understands the artwork will challenge public opinion.

"I think that's confounding for people because they don't know what the creature is, but secondly they don't know if it's an artwork or what it's trying to do," she said.

Hanging from its giant whale-like body are ten huge pendulous breasts.

Ms Piccinini says they reflect how whales are mammals and breast-feed their young.

I think that means "no". ;)

From http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-05-1...nberra/4683382

FTR, I like it as a piece of art, and it is by Patricia Piccinini, who has done a lot of other great freaky stuff. It just has only the most tenuous connection to the Canberra Centenary.

"...confounding for [the artist] because they don't know what the creature is...if it's an artwork or what it's trying to do..."

I bet they had to go to the trouble of putting weights in those boobs so they would hang down. The hot air in them would make them tend to be all perky and pointed up. I bet there is about 10 pounds of sandbags sewn into each nipple. (and if I ever saw this post of mine out of context, I would be really confused.)

Looks more like a turtle then a whale to me. And yeah, I may not be an art critic but I know what I like, and that isn't it.

First whale penis, and now whale breastfeeding. Dwellars have some serious issues, yo.

"It's all about the dowas."

Quote:

Originally Posted by Clodfobble (Post 864934)

First whale penis, and now whale breastfeeding. Dwellars have some serious issues, yo.

Well, yeah. Before there can be whale breastfeeding, there's got to have been some whale penis time in there somewhere. /mammals

I'd like to see someone sneak that into the Macy's Thanksgiving day parade.

I'd like to see it land on the Japanese embassy.

I'd like to see someone put a pin in it.

What an embarrassment!

Quote:

Originally Posted by ZenGum (Post 864890)

Quote:

"My question is what if evolution went a different way and instead of going back into the sea, from which they came originally, they went into the air and we evolved a nature that could fly instead of swim," she said.

"... then the Skywhale grew really, really big and flew beyond the atmosphere out into space as a Starwhale carrying the city of Canberra; or, maybe even the entire country on its back and we called it 'Starship Australia'."

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You can't trick me, sir. It's starwhales all the way down.

It's got a WIKI page. $300,000 for one flight?

Quote:

The cost of the balloon and the arrangements under which it was funded also attracted criticism. The executive director of culture for the ACT Chief Minister’s directorate informed the media on 9 May that the balloon and its supporting website cost about $170,000.
Documents released the next day showed that the total cost to the government of commissioning and operating The Skywhale over its lifespan will be $300,000, and the philanthropic Aranday Foundation will provide a further $50,000. Moreover, the balloon will remain the property of the Melbourne-based company Global Ballooning and only one flight was scheduled for Canberra at the time.[1]

In response, Jeremy Hanson stated that "this $300,000 extravagance again shows out of touch the ACT Government is with Canberrans' priorities".[8] Katy Gallagher has stated that the Government considered retaining ownership of the balloon during its development, but decided against this option as it would have also involved funding all of The Skywhale's operating costs.
[17] Robyn Archer defended the project, arguing that the balloon's cost was relatively low, and represented "a bargain for public art".[1][11] Piccinini has also said that "it's an aeronautical machine. People's lives depend on it. It has to function properly and that's what it costs, to make a balloon".[3]
While Global Ballooning owns The Skywhale, Piccinini retains the intellectual property to the balloon and the company does not expect to make much money from displaying and operating it. The director of Global Ballooning believes that The Skywhale will become self funding when international galleries begin to exhibit it.[10]

Yeah.. See that's the last of the Helium left on earth.

They got it from rendering down the last Koalas.

Oh, no need to worry, it just uses the hot exhaust gases of burned fossil fuels. We're not stupid.

BUT an excellent statement on Canberra - fat, bloated, ugly, fulla hot air, no sense of direction, with giant teats hanging off it....

that's political life all over

Well, since we have six states and one federal government, I think a six-titted sky-shark would have been more symbolic and, frankly, cooler.

They're not sure whether to call her Norca or The Hindenboob.

Hindenboob. *snort*