In Harrington Lane in Hobart, Tasmania, a monstrous teddy bear towers seven metres above the pavement in a vacant lot. Flanked by graffiti and shrouded by nightfall, its fur bristles gently in the breeze. Its gaze is blank and it has no mouth, yet it somehow exudes utter contempt. If you squint, it almost looks like Paddington Bear – if Paddington Bear was a mammoth machine designed to kill.
This is Giant Teddy – an aptly named work by the Korean-Australian artist EJ Son that looms above this year’s Dark Mofo festival. Its previous iteration was a quarter of the size: a human-sized bear shown at an independent Sydney gallery that danced and swayed.
