The giants set to watch over Melbourne for this year's Firelight Festival
These giants are the work of internationally renowned Tasmanian artist Amanda Parer, who has brought her illuminated inflatable structures to Melbourne's Firelight Festival for the first time.
'People will see [the structures] from afar, and hopefully think, 'wow, this really changes what's usually here'. It's exciting, a bit of fantasy,' she says.
As big as they are in size, they're also big in ideas. Since visiting the Galapagos Islands in 1995 as part of a documentary crew, Parer's work has explored our relationship with the natural world, encouraging viewers to consider their impact on the surrounding environment.
Man, the enormous cross-legged entity, was inspired by Auguste Rodin's The Thinker. Parer has updated the iconic piece, positioning him with his hand over his eyes as he contemplates what went wrong.
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'When Rodin made his sculpture, he was celebrating man's form and man as a pursuer of enlightenment. I've essentially made him or her ponder what went wrong after we've overindulged a bit too much.'
It will be the first time this mammoth installation – which plays with scale, light and contrast – has been shown in Melbourne, having previously been erected in Dubai, Finland, Detroit and Tasmania's Mona Foma festival.
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