61-foot-tall rubber duck turns Port of L.A. into giant bathtub
What's being billed as the world's largest rubber duck sailed into the Port of Los Angeles on Wednesday to promote the city's Tall Ships Festival.
Tethered to a barge, the 61-foot-tall inflatable duck, created by Dutch artist Florentijn Hofman, made its debut in 2007 and has since turned up in more than a dozen cities around the world (including Sydney, São Paulo and even Pittsburgh), turning their harbors into giant bathtubs.
"Rubber Duck knows no frontiers," a statement on Hofman's website reads. "It doesn't discriminate people and doesn't have a political connotation. The friendly, floating Rubber Duck has healing properties: it can relieve mondial tensions as well as define them."
And the spectacle is already delighting visitors to the Los Angeles waterfront, where more than a dozen tall ships are participating in the five-day festival.
But the duck's arrival comes with a warning. "Just as with all works of art in a museum, people are not to touch it," a note on the festival's website reads. "Boaters and kayakers must keep a respectful distance."
There's a reason for the note. In 2009, the duck was stabbed 42 times by a vandal.
"We don't know why the person did it," Hofman told CNN. "But in the Middle Ages there was a moment when they ruined all the sculptures in Europe. We call it a 'sculpture storm.' The museum that bought the work spoke about 'sculpture stormers' that would hit the work — and kill it."
And in 2013, the duck prematurely deflated in Hong Kong’s Victoria Harbor, drawing plenty of "lame duck" jokes. Organizers later said the deflation was planned.
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