When visitors arrive at theHodges Bay Resort & Spain Antigua, they will be greeted with a new, curious sight: a towering, 22-foot tall spaceman dancing just above the sea, at the edge of the resort’s pier.
There’sCandy Hearts, a thirty-piece, three-story hanging sculpture as well as an astonishingly lifelike shark sculpture calledThe Fast Eat Slowlooming over one of the lounges.
The rise of Instagram has made tourists hungry for the most photo-worthy travel spots — and left cities and resorts competing to satiate social media users' appetites. Dubai, for example, has installed a 50-story gold-leafed picture frame outlining its hazy skyline. New York’s CitizenM Bowery Hotel installed a vibrant graffiti mural that doubles as a backdrop for impromptu photoshoots.
“My thought was, we needed to create something that is so different, so massive, that people will want to travel here to see it,” Harding tells PEOPLE. “If you don’t have a strong social media presence in today’s day and age, you’re not in the game.”
Wellemeyer adds, “When we stepped onto the property together, I knew it needed life, so I said, ‘Let’s make something they can see from space. Let’s start there.'”
Hodges Bay would become the first project they collaborated on — Harding asked Murphy to outfit the resort with curated pieces from the collection, but also, “we wanted to do something big, that would blow people away,” Murphy says. “That’s where the spaceman came in.”
Brendan Murphy (left) and Christopher Harding (right) smile in front of the spaceman sculpture.
Murphy and his engineering partner Andy Kostas spent nine months building theBoonji Spacemansculpture at his studio in Miami. He chose a bright, orange hue to contrast with the Caribbean’s blue waters and reflect the resort’s brilliant sunrises and sunsets.
Commander Boonji’s suit is covered in white, scribbled formulas (the artist’s signature design) to represent “passion, desire, and all the different emotions we experience,” according to Murphy. Reinforced with a steel skeleton core, its carbon-fiber exterior can withstand winds from a Category 4 hurricane and other natural elements.
The 22-foot, 3,000 lb sculpture had a treacherous journey from Murphy’s Florida studio to Antigua. It took three days, 12 men, one massive crane and custom scaffolding to erect the spaceman, which is also mounted in five feet of solid concrete.
Beyond an “Instagrammable moment,” Murphy hopes theBoonji Spacemaninspires travelers venturing out into the world for the first time in the wake of the ongoing pandemic.
“The spaceman embraces the unknown, he’s dancing through life,” Murphy says. “As we look to emerge from the greatest challenge of our generation with COVID-19, I hope this work will inspire people to get back to living, and most of all, to remember that anything is possible.”
source: people.com
