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Unfortunately due to forecasted heavy rain and wind, Skywhales Across Australia is postponed to later in the year.

To ensure community safety and comfort, the event will be rescheduled for another time.

Postponed events:

Skywhales Across Australia: Hot air balloons can't fly in strong winds. We're working on a new date for this event.
Patricia Piccinini Artist Talk: Best experienced alongside the artwork, this talk will be rescheduled to coincide with the exhibition.

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Patricia Piccinini’s sculptures, designed in the form of hot-air balloons, touring from the National Gallery of Australia, will float across the dawn skies at the UniSC. Pack a picnic, bring the family, and enjoy the magical moment as the Skywhale family floats above the coast.

Skywhales Across Australia will see Patricia Piccinini’s beloved Skywhale 2013 and Skywhalepapa 2019–2020 take their family on another tour of Australia.

In the form of two monumental hot air balloons, the skywhale family represents nature, family, evolution, care and wonder — it is a simple story, but a beautiful and uplifting one.

This touring exhibition presents a rare opportunity for regional Australians to experience the magic of the skywhales within their own community.

As the skywhales float across the dawn skies, Piccinini calls on communities to engage with them creatively. Make a morning of it, prepare a picnic, watch in awe, and sing along in wonder as the skywhale family takes flight.

Stay tuned - location and time to be announced.

'Skywhales Across Australia is a project that talks about nature, family, evolution, care and wonder. The skywhales float into our lives to make us smile and think.'

— Patricia Piccinini

Location	Event	Date and time	Cost	Registration
UniSC Athletics Track, Sippy Downs	Exhibition	Sunday 4 May, 4.45-6.30am	Free - Registration is essential	POSTPONED

Skywhales Across Australia is part of the Horizon festival program, running from 2 to 11 May 2025.

Creative Team

Patricia Piccinini

About the Artist

For over 25 years Patricia Piccinini has interrogated the complex relationship between our natural and artificial worlds, beginning each creative project with the posing of a speculative question, a wondrous ‘What if…?’ Known internationally for her astonishing hyperrealism, Piccinini’s practice comprises drawing, photography, video, mixed-media painted compositions, large-scale installation, and includes the now iconic hot-air balloon sculpture Skywhale.

Piccinini was born in Freetown, Sierra Leone in 1965 and arrived in Kamberri/Canberra, Australia in 1972. After graduating with a degree in economic history from the Australian National University in 1988 she pursued painting at the Victorian College of the Arts, graduating in 1991. With a group of fellow artists, including her husband Peter Hennessy, Piccinini established the Basement Project Gallery in Naarm/Melbourne in 1994. She and Hennessy have worked as a collaborative team ever since, operating out of Drome, their joint studio in Collingwood. Drome comprises a team of studio assistants, artisans, technologists and fabricators who bring a wealth of specialist knowledge to the expanding scale and complexity of Piccinini’s practice.

Piccinini began exploring the implications of biotechnology and genome sequencing in The Mutant Genome Project 1994–95, a series of digital photographs and installations. Her probing of the boundaries of nature and artifice, shared DNA, mutations and hybridity were further demonstrated in We are family, which was shown in the Australian Pavilion at the Venice Biennale in 2003. Skywhale, an enormous hot-air balloon sculpture of an imagined flying mammal, was commissioned in 2013 and has since flown throughout the world. Recently, Skywhale’s companion piece, Skywhalepapa—Piccinini’s most ambitious project to date—was commissioned by the National Gallery of Australia with the support of The Balnaves Foundation. After launching in Kamberri/Canberra in 2021, the Skywhale family has taken to the skies of Australia, touring nationally as part of the National Gallery of Australia’s commitment to bringing art to all Australians.

Acknowledgements

Skywhales Sunshine Coast is presented by Horizon in partnership with Caloundra Regional Gallery.

Skywhales Across Australia is a National Gallery Touring Event, supported by the Australian Government through Visions of Australia and the National Collecting Institutions Touring Outreach Program. 

Skywhales is the third instalment of The Balnaves Contemporary Series and is a Know My Name project.

Sunshine Coast National Art Prize 2025 - Finalist

Artist Statement