It's not everyday you see a large hippo floating
down the River Thames, but lucky Londoners
got just that when a 21 metre long sculpture
was bobbing along the water.
Yes, that's right. A large wooden hippo was
making his way down the river as part of a
new art exhibition.
From the renowned Dutch artist Florentijn
Hofman, who is best known for his 'Rubber
Duck' that travelled around the world, here
comes the HippopoThames.
Well the inspiration was the children's book
of my daughter, where the design of a hippo
was drawn, and when I came to London I knew
the restrictions of the 6-metre-high bridge,
so I needed a stretched object, and together
with this design of this hippo in the booklet
of my daughter, I designed a 3D model out
of it.
It's a HippopoThames, and that's the title
of the work. We took around six weeks to design
it and to make technical drawings, and then
the crew took I think six weeks to build it
here in London.
The giant hippo will be on display in London
throughout September.
