giant KAWS sculpture floating in hong kong harbor will float no longer

a giant version of american artist KAWS’ signature character, companion, will end its near one-week long swim in hong kong’s victoria harbor due to bad weather. the 121-foot-long inflatable was launched off the central harbourfront last friday as part of hong kong arts month, concurrently with art basel in hong kong.

images courtesy of @allrightsreserved

the monochrome figure is the latest stop for a touring exhibition of the giant sculpture to different asian cities, dubbed ‘KAWS:HOLIDAY‘. KAWS has seen iterations of the project installed at the chiang kai shek memorial hall in taipei, taiwan, and on seokchon lake in seoul, south korea. 

images courtesy of @allrightsreserved

to get the monumental work far enough into the water, tugboats pulled the sculpture from wanchai to the waterfront off tamar park until it reached the central harborfront. the work was launched by locally-based creative studio allrightsreserved, the same same company behind other viral hits in hong kong’s main harbor, including paulo grangeon’s sleuth of 1,600 papier maché pandas and florentijn hofman’s giant rubber duck, which famously deflated in 2013. 

image courtesy of @NK7

it now seems that the KAWS:HOLIDAY show will face a similarly disappointing end. according to the south china morning post, a tweet from lam shu-kam, the curator and creative director of organiser allrightsreserved, has announced that the show would end on friday instead of sunday.

images courtesy of @NK7

‘after a week of relaxing time at the victoria harbor hong kong, companion thanks all fans for visiting, with special gratitude to the marine staff who have worked and safeguarded companion 24-7 non-stop at the harbour,’ he wrote.

image courtesy of @NK7

‘in view of the upcoming unstable weather over weekend forecast by hong kong observatory, it’s time for KAWS:HOLIDAY to say goodbye to all tomorrow, to avoid any unnecessary circumstances as well as to ensure the safety of marine staff.’

image courtesy of @allrightsreserved

images courtesy of @allrightsreserved

images courtesy of @allrightsreserved  

project info

artist: KAWS

organizing body/curator: allrightsreserved

location: hong-kong