urban toys

You’ve probably seen the duck. If you’re anywhere near the duck, it’s hard not to see it. Six storeys tall, bright yellow and floating down the world’s major waterways, it’s the art world equivalent of the Nike ‘Swoosh’. And the places the duck has been: Sydney (twice!), London, Taiwan, Osaka, Auckland, Hong Kong, Los Angeles, São Paulo, Baku (it’s the capital of Azerbaijan) and a whole host more. It’s the most well travelled toy since the garden gnome from Amelie.

The duck—called, simply, Rubber Duck—is the invention of Florentijn Hofman, a Dutch artist, designer and father of four who is the closest thing the world of public art has to a legitimate celebrity. Beyond Rubber Duck, now a veteran of more than twenty cities, Hofman has also built a giant octopus playground out of yarn (Kraken, Shenzhen); a giant, half-submerged wooden hippo to float down the Thames (HippopoThames, London); and a fully climbable, recumbent aardvark in a party hat (Partyaardvark, Arnhem). The aardvark is thirty metres long and