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Dutch artist Florentijn Hofman’s artwork Selfie Panda will be installed in Sichuan, southwest China. Photo: Florentijn Hofman

Rubber Duck artist on his next project, a selfie-taking panda 26 metres long: ‘Why just do a panda? I want an extra element’

  • When his Rubber Duck installation arrived in Hong Kong in 2013, it was the making of Dutch artist Florentijn Hofman. He learned a lot about the power of his art
  • Soon his next work, a bristling giant panda with a working selfie camera, will be installed in Sichuan, China. ‘I’m not interested in cute pandas,’ Hofman says

The coronavirus pandemic hasn’t affected Dutch artist Florentijn Hofman much. He, his wife and four children are housed in a former military compound in a forest. Over the phone, birds can be heard chirping in the background.

“We’re spending more time with the children, who are being home-schooled. We don’t notice there is a pandemic going on, though my wife does the groceries as only one person is allowed to go out,” he says.

The 43-year-old artist, best known for The Rubber Duck, Big Yellow Rabbit, and Hippo Thames, was about to get ready to drive to Rotterdam West, about an hour from where he lives in the Netherlands, to install his latest work, a giant fox made of concrete with a plastic bag in its mouth.

The tail has been attached to the fox’s body, next the head will be installed, and then the whole thing will be painted.

Hofman’s giant rubber duck near Ocean Terminal in Hong Kong in 2013. Photo: Jonathan Wong

His latest project, Selfie Panda, is being built in Dujiangyan in Sichuan province, southwest China, and will be unveiled in late June or early July. Hofman says he was asked to do something giant-panda-related in Sichuan seven years ago, but declined. “Why just do a panda? I want to do a story to add an extra element,” he explains.

Two years ago, a production company in Shenzhen, southern China, invited Hofman to go to the Sichuan capital, Chengdu. He was struck by the fact that the city had decided on a location for a work by him, in the city’s central square.
The selfie panda to be installed in Dujiangyan, southwest China, under construction. Photo: Florentijn Hofman
“I grew up knowing the panda through the WWF [World Wildlife Foundation] logo. I’m not interested in cute pandas. Everywhere I looked I saw black and white souvenirs. It’s business,” he says.

While in Chengdu, Hofman learned that pandas are classed as carnivorous (meat eaters) and have a carnivore’s digestive system, but their diet consists mostly of bamboo.

“Panda farms [breeding centres] are interesting, but they are not like nature,” Hofman says, “and they get money from this.”

The fur on Hofman’s panda is made of steel cables that can be stroked and return to their original position. Photo: Florentijn Hofman

Through his observations Hofman created Selfie Panda, a giant piece of public art 26.5 metres (87 feet) long, 13.2 metres wide and 13 metres tall, making it the world’s largest panda figure. As giant pandas typically sleep a lot, this one is lying on its back, but still has just enough energy to look at itself. It is making a statement about self-importance and vanity, since it doesn’t care if visitors hang around.

“You can be in the selfie too,” Hofman explains; the panda’s “phone” is an LED screen that can take pictures of visitors and the panda together.

“It looks and functions like a phone. It will have WeChat and take pictures,” the artist says.
Hofman researched pandas in Chengdu for his upcoming installation. Photo: Florentijn Hofman

Hofman sees Selfie Panda as a vehicle to show the relationship between an object – in this case the giant panda – and nature.

“Whether you are a CEO or a carpenter, you are all small in comparison with my art,” he says.

Selfie Panda will be lying on “grass”, or artificial turf, and visitors will be allowed on it – something Hofman says goes against the rules of most parks in China, where the public are forbidden from stepping on the grass. To him this sparks a question about what is and isn’t nature, and how humanity helps nature thrive.

I got lots of fan mail from people, some saying how the Rubber Duck exposes how rotten [Hong Kong] is, how it is all about commerce and money.
Florentijn Hofman

Unlike most artists, Hofman encourages visitors to touch Selfie Panda, which has “fur” made of three million small steel cables that, once stroked, will return to their original position.

For Hofman, all his artworks are gigantic and “all about skin”. “It’s how we touch it and make a connection to it. I want people who travel there to touch it,” he says.

With the current coronavirus pandemic that has shut down most flights around the world, it may be a while before people travel again, but the Dutch artist is optimistic.

The giant panda installation will be more than 26 metres long and 13 metres tall. Photo: Florentijn Hofman

“The virus is not a thing that stays, it goes away. Now we have to deal with it. Most public art you aren’t allowed to touch anyway. When you are in Chengdu, the top thing on the list to do is to hug a panda – but that means wearing a plastic cover. They asked me if I wanted to do that, and I said I didn’t want to hold it.

“It’s the wrong perspective on the matter. If you want to create a species, you shouldn’t pet them – they should be in nature.”

Although Hofman has been creating public art since 2005, he only became famous when his Rubber Duck arrived in Hong Kong in 2013.

Hofman examines a scale model of Selfie Panda. Photo: Florentijn Hofman

“The Rubber Duck was the biggest art statement for me. People work very long hours in Hong Kong, and I heard stories of people walking out of their offices to see the duck, take a picture of it and then go back. Hong Kong had a different vibe when they had the Rubber Duck.”

He says the giant yellow duck has visited almost 50 cities in the world, but that it was in Hong Kong that Hofman understood his work. “My atelier is the public space. I put it there to learn and I change the details or where I put it, how I implement it and who promotes it and how.

“In Hong Kong I learned how and what power that work can have and how it can change people’s behaviour,” he says. “I got lots of fan mail from people, some saying how the Rubber Duck exposes how rotten the city is, how it is all about commerce and money. This is what I like about my work – it shows what it is without using itself.”

This article appeared in the South China Morning Post print edition as: supersized panda aims to put public in the picture
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