First Light: Skywhales Across Australia
Patricia Piccinini's 'Skywhale' and 'Skywhalepapa' are floating through the Gold Coast's skies for Bleach* 2025.
Overview
It isn't every day that you can peer up at the Gold Coast sky and spot a family of giant hot-air balloon sculptures soaring above the city — but on Thursday, July 31, 2025, you'll be able to do just that. That's when Patricia Piccinini's Skywhalepapa will float through the air alongside the artist's equally otherworldly Skywhale. Our advice: if you'll be around that part of southeast Queensland, then you'll want to look up.
The distinctive works will take to the air at sunrise, and get hovering. Wake up early to see them launch or find a great vantage point to stare into the sky once they're up there: the choice is yours. Either way, the eye-catching event is taking place as part of this year's Bleach*, aka the Gold Coast's annual winter arts festival, which runs from Thursday, July 31–Sunday, August 10.
New to all things Skywhale and Skywhalepapa? Thirty-four-metres long, more than twice as big as a regular hot air balloon and ripped straight from Piccinini's inimitable mind, Skywhale might just be one of Australia's most-recognisable recent pieces of art. It's a sight to see, and also the largest-scale example of the artist's ongoing fascination with the thin line that separates nature and technology — and in Skywhalepapa, it has finally met its match.
The latter made its debut in 2021 thanks to the National Gallery of Australia in Canberra, but taking both billowing hot air balloons around the country was always the plan. Of course, the pandemic had something to say about that — Skywhalepapa was originally scheduled to premiere in 2020, in fact.
Skywhalepapa is designed to form a family with Skywhale, and was originally commissioned as part of the NGA's Balnaves Contemporary Series. It took 3.6 kilometres of fabric to create the second bulbous sculpture, which also features nine baby Skywhales, safely tucked beneath their father's fins. Obviously, this isn't the kind of thing you see in the sky every day.
Exactly where First Light: Skywhales Across Australia will be setting off from hasn't yet been revealed — keep an eye on the event website to find out.
National Gallery of Australia
Images: National Gallery of Australia.
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