My my my, just look what’s popped up on the Freedom of Information website:
Documents relating to a special shaped balloon for the Centenary of Canberra
[Photo courtesy of Peter Hennessey]
My my my, just look what’s popped up on the Freedom of Information website:
Documents relating to a special shaped balloon for the Centenary of Canberra
[Photo courtesy of Peter Hennessey]
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pierce said :
A giant sponge – then at least Australians who live outside the ACT could really appreciate it!
Roundhead89 said :
That would explain the titties…
damien haas said :
A totally moronic investment done without a competitive process on the whim of an unqualified basket weaver. That’s the unmistakable conclusion from these documents.
supamodel said :
A simple googling throws these up:
http://www.examiner.com.au/story/1591871/dark-mofos-skywhale-proves-a-hit/?cs=95
no mention of canberra
http://www.shanegarton.com/sculptor-patricia-piccinini-skywhale-coming-to-dark-mofo-2013-winter-festival/
focus is on artist, but mentions canberra
http://www.darkmofo.net.au/program/the-skywhale/
mentions canberra, but i also note that the centenary of canberra are MOFO sponsors. why?
http://www.abc.net.au/local/videos/2013/06/25/3789092.htm
brief mention of canberra
http://www.themercury.com.au/article/2013/06/20/381827_most-popular-stories.html
Piccinini’s Skywhale
http://www.thevine.com.au/music/festivals/photos-dark-mofo-hobart-2013/
Piccinini’s Skywhale
There’s a few others, but objectively people not from Canberra or aware of the Centenary relationship would think of it as a Piccinini sculpture.
Have we spent our money wisely? Its making the belconnen owl look like a sound investment.
pierce said :
How about a bog standard round balloon, one with “Centenary of Canberra” written on it. Around $30,000 or 1/10 of the cost of the skypigtittywhale and 1000x more relevant. We could also keep it here in Canberra, and your average Canberran could take (for a nominal fee) a ride over Canberra in it.
It woudl be a far bigger hit than the pretentious arty claptrap we wasted good money on, and other places may not hate us even more.
Just a thought.
supamodel said :
Adding to this: my point is that it doesn’t promote Canberra’s Centennary. It doesn’t necessarily need branding or to look like something from Canberra, but in any case it is failing to promote the centenary. Promotional opportunities is one of the primary reasons cited in the docs released under FOI for going with Global Ballooning for the operation of the Skywhale.
It’s not like I just feel it isn’t promoting it, evidence from its airing in Hobart shows this to be the case.
pierce said :
Even if it didn’t look like something from Canberra, I dunno, might be nice if it were mentioned somewhere that helped people associate it. People who attended Dark MOFO had no information that it was created for our centennary. Pretty much just was “here’s something by Patricia Piccinini” in terms of what info was given out.
Source: people who were there, man.
Really? We’re still banging on about the whole – it doesn’t look like the Telstra Tower, Parliament House or the Hyperdome – so therefore it can’t possibly represent Canberra thing?
Straight from the same school of thought that brought us – Picasso’s paintings don’t look like real people so they’re bad.
What exactly would a hot air balloon that represents Canberra look like anyway?
Chop71 said :
Bristol? (titter). Did they get Benny Hill to fix it?
Chop71 said :
Bristol is the home of the world’s largest hot air balloon manufacturer. It’s also the original manufacturer of the balloon. There is an Australian hot air balloon manufacturer, Kavanagh Balloons who are up in Sydney. I would be surprised if they didn’t bid on building it (but I haven’t asked). That said, Cameron Balloons in Bristol are better known for building funky shaped balloons, ergo, they probably were the right people to build it.
Would you want Qantas to get someone other than the aircraft manufacturer to fix one of their planes? Aircraft certification is a nightmare.
Nowhere to keep it – well, we have places, but it’s not like you just chuck an envelope in the shed and be done with it.
What gets me about Skywhale though is none of the above nor the fact Canberra’s money was spent on it. One of its purposes is to promote our centenary across Australia and the world. It completely fails at this.
The pic for this article is from the Dark MOFO festival in Hobart. All cool, it’s a piece of artwork, it should be there. I know lots of Tasmanians (I grew up there… I escaped). No-one had ANY idea the skywhale was to do with Canberra and why it was comissioned. When I pointed this out to them, most people had the response of “and this has what to do with Canberra?”. Exactly.
Now these aren’t people who are backwater hicks (despite being Tasmanians). These are generally quite educated and art-loving people that I know… even they weren’t aware of why it was brought into being.
No problem with it being ‘art’. No problem with it being used to promote Canberra. It just fails at that part of its brief completely and utterly. For that reason I’m not happy with it.
lol, Bristol??? couldn’t fine someone in Australia to fix it?
…and we don’t have the specialized storage to keep it here in Canberra?
This is the gift that keeps giving.