The Skywhale
| The Skywhale | |
|---|---|
 |
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| The Skywhale shortly before taking off on its second flight over Canberra | |
| Role | Hot air balloon |
| National origin | Australia and the United Kingdom |
| Manufacturer | Cameron Balloons |
| Designer | Patricia Piccinini |
| Program cost | A$350,000 |
| Type | Cameron Skywhale 110 |
| Manufacturer | Cameron Balloons |
| Construction number | 11628 |
| Manufactured | 2012-2013 |
| Registration | VH-IOQ |
| First flight | 2013 |
| Owners and operators | Global Ballooning |
The Skywhale is a hot air balloon designed by the sculptor Patricia Piccinini as part of a commission to mark the centenary of the city of Canberra. It was built by Cameron Balloons in Bristol, United Kingdom, and first flew in Australia in 2013. The balloon's design received a mixed response after it was publicly unveiled in May 2013.
Ahead of the centenary of the Australian national capital city of Canberra in 2013, the creative director of the centenary celebrations, Robyn Archer, commissioned the sculptor Patricia Piccinini in 2010 to develop a balloon. Piccinini grew up in Canberra and completed a degree in economics at the Australian National University before becoming a successful sculptor. She has received praise for creating highly realistic sculptures of human-like living creatures, and her work has been exhibited worldwide. Archer selected Piccinini for the project in recognition of the sculptor's connections to Canberra; other prominent former Canberrans have also been asked to participate in the centenary celebrations. Piccinini had not previously designed a balloon.
Piccinini's intention when designing the balloon was to fashion it as sculpture of a living creature rather than a "balloon that looked like something". She was inspired by the planned nature of Canberra, and has described the work as:
"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. 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".
The official website of The Skywhale describes Piccinini's design as follows:
Wings didn't make sense to Patricia; the creature was too big and the technical limitations of balloon design wouldn't allow them anyway. So she took a cue from the balloon itself, and imagined that the creature might somehow secrete a lighter than air gas. In the place of wings she imagined huge udders that might contain the gas, as well as a huge bulbous body. She imagined the creature with a slightly more human face, with a calm benign expression that would inspire empathy rather than fear. Her aim was to create a being that was massive and wondrous and that exists somewhere between the impossible and the unlikely.
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Wikipedia