Gator In The Bay is a floating, water-based art installation, promoting the salvation of the Everglades. It has appeared at Art Basel in Miami Beach, Florida and in Biscayne Bay.
The head of the alligator is built on a self-propelled barge and is accompanied by 102 floating art tiles. Together, these tiles create a photo mosaic image of an alligator 230 feet long. [1] Including the head, the entire installation is the world's largest artificial alligator at 275 feet long [2] [3] and took four years and $1 million to complete. [4] Gator in the Bay appears different throughout the day and night. During the daylight hours, the illusion seems genuine. In darkness, the floating art tiles become dark alligator scales and silhouette with underwater lighting.
The brain behind the installation, Goradesky created the floating art tiles each with thousands of his digital images of the Everglades. Together, these tiles make up the gator's body in a giant photo mosaic. More than 100,000 digital images were used to create the gator's body. [5] [6]
The 70 by 30-foot gator head is sculpted from reclaimed metal by this artist. [5]
This engineer is responsible for constructing the mechanism for opening and closing the mouth of the gator. Within the 30 foot head, an excavator powers the jaw. The entire head weighs 30,000 pounds. [7]
Originally shown at Art Basel in Miami Beach, the Gator was created to raise awareness of the Everglades. The Miami New Times described Gator in the Bay as "just the kind of [art] to augment the Magic City's reputation as a Mecca for Artistic Lunacy." [8]
Goradesky's work is complex and is compared to the works of Christo. As his list of accolades and recognition continues to grow, Goradesky is reaching a unique audience that appreciates the power of art and its message. [9]
The opportunities for Gator in the Bay are endless, Gator in the Bay is a complete exhibit that includes T-shirts, posters, project diagrams, hats, books, and mixed media art. In addition to the sale of the Floating Art Tiles. [9] [10] [11]
Biscayne National Park is a national park of the United States located south of Miami, Florida, in Miami-Dade County. The park preserves Biscayne Bay and its offshore barrier reefs. Ninety-five percent of the park is water, and the shore of the bay is the location of an extensive mangrove forest. The park covers 172,971 acres and includes Elliott Key, the park's largest island and northernmost of the true Florida Keys, formed from fossilized coral reef. The islands farther north in the park are transitional islands of coral and sand. The offshore portion of the park includes the northernmost region of the Florida Reef, one of the largest coral reefs in the world.
Biscayne Bay is a lagoon with characteristics of an estuary located on the Atlantic coast of South Florida. The northern end of the lagoon is surrounded by the densely developed heart of the Miami metropolitan area while the southern end is largely undeveloped with a large portion of the lagoon included in Biscayne National Park.
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The Biscayne Aquifer, named after Biscayne Bay, is a surficial aquifer. It is a shallow layer of highly permeable limestone under a portion of South Florida. The area it underlies includes Broward County, Miami-Dade County, Monroe County, and Palm Beach County, a total of about 4,000 square miles (10,000 km2).
Belle Isle is a neighborhood in the city of Miami Beach on an island in Biscayne Bay, Florida, United States. It is the easternmost of the Venetian Islands, a chain of artificial islands in Biscayne Bay in the cities of Miami and Miami Beach. It is home to apartment buildings, a portion of the Venetian Causeway, a city of Miami Beach park, and a hotel. It is between Rivo Alto Island and the main barrier island of Miami Beach.
Flagler Memorial Island is an uninhabited artificial island of South Beach in the city of Miami Beach in Biscayne Bay, Florida. A 110-foot (34 m) high obelisk with allegorical sculptures at its base stands as a monument to Miami pioneer Henry M. Flagler, and was built in the center of the freshly constructed island in memory of Flagler, who died in 1913.
The Flamingo Hotel overlooked Biscayne Bay on the west side of the newly formed city of Miami Beach, Florida, until the 1950s, when it was torn down to make room for the new Morton Towers development, which is now known as the Flamingo South Beach.
OSGEMEOS are identical twin street artists Otavio Pandolfo and Gustavo Pandolfo. They started painting graffiti in 1987 and their work appears on streets and in galleries across the world.
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