Close to seven years after its "terrifyingly nipply" debut, the iconic 'Skywhale' hot air balloon has risen to grace Canberra's skies once again.
Designed by Canberran artist Patricia Piccinini, the Skywhale was originally commissioned as part of Canberra's centenary celebrations in 2013.
It flies again today as part of the Canberra Balloon Spectacular, and Canberra Day public holiday celebrations.
The balloon takes the shape of a serene, floating whale, buoyed by ten pendulous breasts dangling by its sides.
Piccinini has said that the design was inspired, in part, by the planned nature of Canberra, as well as the question of what a whale might look like had it evolved to fly instead of swim.
"My question is what if evolution went a different way and instead of going back into the sea, from which they came originally, they went into the air and we evolved a nature that could fly instead of swim," the artist told the ABC in 2013.
"In fact coming from a place like Canberra where it's a planned city that's really tried to integrate and blend in with the natural environment, it makes a lot of sense to make this sort of huge, gigantic, but artificial and natural-looking creature"
Upon its debut in May 2013, the Skywhale was described by one Twitter user as "terrifyingly nipply", a succinct description that has stood the test of time.
The hot air balloon was also controversial due to its cost, after it emerged that it ACT taxpayers were contributing up to $300,000 for the artwork. That figure involved $172,000 for the balloon's initial construction, as well as ongoing operating costs.
In 2013, then-Chief Minister of the ACT Katy Gallagher defended the balloon as an important piece of public art, saying it challenged perceptions of Canberra as a "boring place where nothing happens".
On that point, she was right -- Canberra is certainly not a boring place today, as Skywhale is joined in the sky by other creative hot air balloons, including one in the shape of an immense tyrannosaurus rex.
While Piccinini announced in November that Skywhale would also be joined today by her partner, a new, "taller and more vertical" balloon named Skywhalepapa, Skywhalepapa's debut has been delayed until May.
