"Rubber Duck" Art Installation Is Making a Comeback in Hong Kong
(SPOT.ph) Hong Kong has many tourist attractions like Disneyland and Ocean Park, but there's more to the country than that. They're known for ducks, too—both Peking ducks and the large-scale inflatable rubber duck art installation that once was stationed in Victoria Harbour. And it's set for a comeback this June.
What is this rubber duck?
"Rubber Duck" is a series of giant floating sculptures of yellow rubber ducks by Dutch artist Florentijn Hofman that started in 2007. It appeared in many cities around the world, including Sydney, London, Toronto, and Pittsburgh; and has always meant to be temporary. Hofman, who is known for his large-scale public art installations, takes inspiration from the widely known tub toy.
"I could have painted a rubber duck on a reproduction of a painting. But, no, it needed to be real. It needed to be a real, three-dimensional duck," he said in a 2014 interview.
The "Rubber Duck" was first put on display in Hong Kong in 2013. It's making a much-awaited comeback in mid-June its 10th anniversary. This time, the lone rubber duck will be accompanied by another identical rubber duck and it's said both will be bigger than the duck from the prior installation.
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Hong Kong's famous rubber duck is making a comeback this June 2023:
On the morning of May 25, two of the yellow rubber ducks were being "tested" at a dockyard in Tsing Yi, South China Morning Post reports. After the evaluation, the duo of ducks will be towed off to Admiralty, Hong Kong.
The rubber duck testing, which doesn't concern animal cruelty in any way, aims to see if the ducks will stay afloat or "swim" if they're moved from one place to another. With the help of two convoy vessels, the ducks were tailing these vehicles from Tsing Yi shipyard to Ting Kau Bridge and Ma Bridge before making their way back to the Tsing Yi shipyard.
AllRightsReserved, a Hong Kong-based art studio, is in the process of finalizing the details of the impending installation. There's no confirmed location in the harbor and how long the rubber ducks will stay there for locals and tourists to see, but an update is expected by June 1.
Hopefully, this will increase the country's goals of boosting its tourism. If you were one of the lucky ones who won a free plane trip to Hong Kong, then best to schedule that trip as soon as possible to see the large-scale public art with your own eyes.
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