Glowing 12m-tall inflatable alien spies land for Brisbane Festival
This is not a drill people – the aliens are here and they are watching us.
But it turns out the glowing, inflatable alien spies were actually brought to Brisbane from the Czech Republic by humans – specifically, the creative team behind Brisbane Festival – after artistic director David Berthold had a dream that aliens visited him.
One of five 40-foot inflatable humanoids featuring in the Brisbane Festival displays.
Photo: Instagram - @brisbanefestivalInspired by his dream, Mr Berthold said he needed to bring the fear of an alien invasion to Brisbane and found the art piece he was looking for, thanks to Australian artist Amanda Parer.
She has a passion for inflatable art and has had her works feature all over the world.
This particular design had been used in Prague, but five humanoids have been placed around Brisbane, "watching benignly over us" according to Mr Berthold.
Three can be seen in Southbank, one has been set up at Brisbane Airport, and the other has been installed on top of QPAC.
The aliens will observe Brisbanites until September 30, before returning to space.
“When people see the humanoids, maybe they will wonder what these aliens are observing about us and whether they will take a good or bad message back to their home planet about us,” Mr Berthold said.
More than 500 different artistic displays from across the world have been brought to Brisbane as part of the festival, which spans 22 days and uses 20 different venues.
“It's a time where we can share in a lot of the vision from artists around the world," Mr Berthold said.”
Mr Berthold said this year's festival featured a very strong contemporary music line-up, which he liked because he believed Brisbane has been very proud of its place in the history of contemporary music.
The 2017 Brisbane Festival line-up also heavily featured augmented reality experiences.
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