The Big Yellow Duck is the collective name for a series of giant inflatable yellow rubber ducks, each designed by Florentijn Hofman. Since 2007, the big yellow duck has been traveling around the world. Every time the big yellow duck attracts crazy pursuits from local fans, bringing surprises and laughter to people, it has largely realized the artist's original intention of creating the rubber duck as a childhood symbol of people all over the world. The images that appear in all of them can heal everyone's soul and relax their mood. They have no national boundaries, do not discriminate against anyone, and do not have any political connotations. [2]

Design inspiration

A group of ducks drifting wearing sunglasses

A group of ducks drifting wearing sunglasses

1992 A cargo ship departing from China planned to cross the Pacific and arrive at the Port of Tacoma, Washington State, USA. However, it encountered a strong storm on the way. A container filled with 29,000 bathtub toys fell into the sea and burst. The yellow ducks, blue ducks and Turtles and green frogs floated to the surface, forming a huge "duck fleet" and drifted with the tide ever since. Crossing the ocean from China to the coasts of the United States and the United Kingdom, the journey was filled with all kinds of wonderful experiences, quite like a beautiful fairy tale. Most of these bath toys are yellow inflatable rubber ducks. These little things used their weak buoyancy and stoic endurance to travel across the ocean from China and finally landed in the UK and the United States after 15 years of hardship. The experience not only moved "Duck Chasing fans" from all over the world, but also inspired Hoffmann's creative inspiration (the inspiration came from an art exhibition that Hoffmann visited in Rotterdam and saw the landscape paintings of Dutch art masters). [3]

The bathtub duck, an image derived from daily life, is completely in line with Hoffmann’s artistic concept of originating from life. Coupled with the incredible fun and admirable courage behind the 15-year rafting story, Hofmann Fuman believed that this could almost compare with Columbus who discovered the New World, so he created the first "big yellow duck" in 2007.

Designer

Hofman and the Big Yellow Duck

Hofman and the Big Yellow Duck

Hofman (Florentijn Hofman) [ 4], 36 years old in 2013, a world-renowned artist. After completing art school in the Netherlands in 2000, he went to Berlin to study for a master's degree. Since he was very interested in public art when he was studying in art school, but elements such as billboards and buildings would affect the display of artworks, so Hoffman likes to make his works very large. The largest yellow duck is as high as 26 rice.

Despite being invited to cities around the world, Hofmann has his own rules: Each duck is made locally and never leaves the water. "The world's water body is a giant bathtub. We need to keep it simple," says Hoffman. A large number of businesses once regarded the big yellow duck as a perfect billboard and wanted to print their trademarks on it. But Hoffman refused one by one, and even Harbor City, which hosted the display, did not receive special attention. The only "commercial activity" was the on-site sale of 1,000 miniature yellow ducks to raise money for a charity foundation dedicated to helping people with mental illness.

Basic specifications

As of 2013, Hoffmann has produced ten models of big yellow ducks, each with different sizes. For specifications of various styles, please refer to the exhibition table over the years under the exhibition history of this entry.

Introduction to the device

The inside of the big yellow duck is empty, and there is a zipper entrance at the tail. When necessary, maintenance personnel can enter the rubber duck for inspection and repair. Inside the body

Inside the big yellow duck

Inside the big yellow duck

There is a huge fan. No matter the weather is good or bad, as long as it is inflated, you can swim freely Swim away. The big yellow duck, which is composed of 200 giant pieces, weighs 600 kilograms without inflating. It takes 25 to 30 minutes to inflate and only 10 minutes to deflate. The air pump inside the big yellow duck needs to be inflated 24 hours a day to ensure that the big yellow duck maintains its shape on the water. It needs to be inflated or deflated according to weather conditions. Taking into account the water conditions and safety protection of the event venue, the inflating of the rubber duck is completed on site.

If the waters are windy and rough, in order to prevent the inflated duck from being unsafe due to the wind, the duck will not float on its own, but will be tied to a fixed location by a boat hidden under the water. be fixed. The big yellow duck also comes with three cement anchors each weighing 3 tons to ensure that the big yellow duck will not be washed away by the waves.

Maintenance Team

There is a group of nearly fifty people behind the Big Yellow Duck to do maintenance work. There are some routine inspections every day, mainly to see if there is any damage on the surface. Duck

The Big Yellow Duck Reveals

The Big Yellow Duck Reveals

Is the internal fan damaged? When the big yellow duck enters the water, it needs a medium-sized tugboat to pull it in front. Several small boats surround the duck's feet. The staff approaches the duck's body with bare hands and drags, pulls and pushes it all the way. Because the sea surface in Victoria Harbor is relatively rough, there are many technical issues involved in making the rubber duck float safely on the sea surface.

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Exhibition History

Exhibitions over the years

The Big Yellow Duck’s Global Journey

The Big Yellow Duck’s Travel around the world (13 photos)

Year Country City Clear Height (meters) Dimensions (meters*meters*meters)

2007 Netherlands Amsterdam 5——

2007 France Saint-Nazaire 26 26*20*32

2008

Netherlands

Amsterdam 5——

2008 Wassena, Netherlands 5 ——

2008 Nuremberg, Germany 5 ——

2008 Rotterdam, Netherlands 5 ——

2008 Sao Paulo, Brazil 12 12 *14 * 16

2009 Belgium Hasselt 12 12 *14 *16

2009 Japan Osaka 10 10* 11*13

2011 New Zealand Auckland 12 12*14*16

2012 Hiroshima, Japan 10 ——

2012 London, United Kingdom —— ——

2013 Sydney, Australia 15 13*14* 15

2013 Hong Kong, China 16.5

14*15*16.5

2013 Beijing, China 18 ——

Note: As of In June 2013, it had been exhibited in 14 cities in 11 countries and regions. Some websites on the Internet are inaccurate about the number of countries and cities visited by the big yellow duck.