Skyward
Early this year I was commissioned to create a sprawling sculpture for the Dubai Mall. It’s an enormous and amazing place with more restaurants and attractions than some small cities. I brought a crew of seasoned veteran assistants with me and we had a fantastic time. The sculpture we made was titled Skyward. Very similar to Pisces, the sculpture I posted about last week. Skyward employed a gradient of yellow to orange then red. Getting the balloons to Dubai was a challenge in part due to serious winter storms that were interrupting shipping around the US. Each of my team members was to carry one extra suitcase filled with 50 pounds of balloons. Unfortunately most of the balloons didn’t make it in time for us to bring them so I had to rely on a distributor in Dubai that by chance had exactly what I needed to make the project happen. I had reached out to them several times in advance but had not gotten any response. Perhaps the international phone call was difficult. But once we did finally connect it all worked out perfectly. I had tried to bring a yellow/orange color called goldenrod but because it didn’t make it, we put an orange balloon inside a yellow one and when inflated, the color was very similar and was exactly what the gradient needed.
Believe it or not, every balloon you see here is actually one stuffed inside another to give them great strength and longevity. This sculpture remained in place for more that 2 months. Be sure to check it out on my instagram page @hackenwerth
Here is a link to the video for Skyward.
