All puffed up: deflated rubber duck returns to Hong Kong’s Victoria Harbour after 2-day break
- Tourists and local fans snap shots of reunited duo, calling their return ‘pleasant surprise’
- Organisers earlier deflated duck after finding parts of its surface had tightened in hot weather
A giant rubber duck that made up one half of an art installation duo in Hong Kong returned on Monday after a two-day break for checks and repairs, much to the delight of local fans and tourists.
One duck was deflated on Saturday – the first day of the showing – after the studio behind “The Double Ducks by Florentijn Hofman” found parts of its surface had tightened in the hot weather.
After spending Sunday at a dockyard in Tsing Yi where workers repaired the duck, it was towed back to Victoria Harbour on Monday morning and inflated just after noon.
Visitors at Tamar Park in Admiralty said it was a pleasant surprise to see the giant yellow ducks together again, and wasted no time snapping shots of the reunited duo.
“It looks much nicer in photos this way. I’m happy to see the deflated duck is back,” said Liu Jing, 27, a tourist from the mainland Chinese province of Fujian.
Jasmine Man, a housewife in her 40s, brought her two daughters, aged five and 10, to see the installation.
“We came for a quick look knowing there was only one duck. We did not plan on staying long because it’s so hot today,” she said.
“We were about to leave when we saw the second duck was being inflated and the kids were so excited. We ended up watching the whole thing.”
On Father’s Day, this Sunday, one duck will tour the harbour. It will float across Causeway Bay and on to Tsim Sha Tsui, where it will stop in front of the Avenue of Stars from 1pm to 2pm.
To celebrate the event, the nearby K11 Musea shopping centre said it would be handing out free Italian gelato pineapple buns that afternoon on a first-come, first-served basis.
Local organiser AllRightsReserved earlier said its team was prepared to respond to “unexpected challenges” such as weather and “external factors facing large-scale outdoor inflatable art installations in the sea”, and thanked the public for its support.
Hofman, the Dutch artist behind the display, said the project was “a challenging installation”, adding the weather was always a paramount obstacle that had to be dealt with.
The exhibit is slated to last until June 24. The city is expecting rain and thunderstorms in the coming days.
Multiple events and displays have also been organised in tandem with the floating ducks, including yellow stickers on glass windows at Admiralty MTR station.
Saturday’s deflation was not the first time Hofman’s works were forced to take a break.
A single duck installation in Hong Kong 10 years ago was deflated for a week at one point, with organisers explaining it was for scheduled maintenance.
Hofman’s previous shows in Taiwan and mainland China also ran into similar issues due to bad weather.
