Originally made for the Paralympic Opening Ceremony in 2012, a life-sized inflatable sperm whale, Spunky, made a comeback in Beakerhead\u2019s night parade on Sept. 16.<\/p>\n
\u201cSpunky is covered in thousands of lights. It sparkles all over it\u2019s body, which is why I decided to showcase it at night,” said Egan.<\/p>\n
\u201cFilthy Luke described it as life-sized on Facebook, but I say it was a juvenile size,\u201d said Brittany Nguyen, one of the many people to encounter the inflatable.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen people think of art, they usually think paintings, but Luke expresses his art and expressions with his sculptures.” – Brittany Nguyen<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Jose Villela, another audience member, said that Spunky reminded him of the stars.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey showed it during the night, so from far away the lights beaming from the whale looked like the stars,” he said.<\/p>\n
One of the volunteers, Ted Scharff, who helped set up Serpent Mother and Spunky, said the inflatable was lighter than it looks.<\/p>\n
\u201cBecause the whale was full of air, it was easy to carry around despite its large size.\u201d<\/p>\n
During Scharff\u2019s time volunteering at Beakerhead, he said the whale and Serpent Mother were the biggest attractions.<\/p>\n
When Egan and Estrellas are not designing new inflatables, they showcase their art on the street, creating a humourous atmosphere.<\/p>\n
The two started out in a small studio in Bristol, U.K., and received requests from nightclubs, festivals and outdoor events, and eventually went international with Japan\u2019s Fuji Rock Festival.<\/p>\n
The new business that was started by scratch, but Egan and Estrellas didn\u2019t make much money.<\/p>\n
Egan said they couldn’t make stuff and manage the business at the same time, so they hired a few friends made it a proper business.<\/p>\n
The progress of designing inflatables are multiple trial and errors and is quite stressful because of experiments with<\/p>\n
Egan said designing inflatables is a trial and error process and is quite stressful because of experiments with different shapes, forms and functions.<\/p>\n
The materials are planned out with 3D design software to create more complex inflatable sculptures and objects with the help of his team of seamstresses and technicians.<\/p>\n
The materials and fabrics Egan uses for his inflatables are nylon, polyester, and other materials used in kites.<\/p>\n
\u201cInflatables travel really well, they deflate so you can pack them into small trucks and planes,\u201d said Egan.<\/p>\n
Egan may come back to Beakerhead next year but it\u2019s still too early to announce it.<\/p>\n
\u201cAround late November is when Beakerhead contacts the artists and scientists for next year\u2019s event,” said\u00a0Mary-Anne Moser, the head of sponsorships and donations at Beakerhead.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s still too early to say, but we hope to see even bigger and bolder creations with Luke Egan.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Mixed media artist Luke xggan landed in Calgary from the U.K. to collaborate with ACAD and SAIT as a part of this year\u2019s Beakerhead on Sept. 13, 2017. [ READ MORE ]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":371,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_ef_editorial_meta_text_assignment-slug":"S1 Beakerhead","footnotes":""},"categories":[5,7,2],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-37552","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-entertainment","7":"category-hillhurst_sunnyside","8":"category-campus-2"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37552","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/371"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37552"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37552\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":38435,"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37552\/revisions\/38435"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37552"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37552"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37552"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}