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Beach Ball Spider 2025
Date
September 2025
Drew McDonald’s sculpture Beach Ball Spider was awarded the prestigious Neumann Family Award at the 2025 SWELL Sculpture Festival. Now in its 23rd year, SWELL transformed Currumbin Beach on the Gold Coast into an open-air gallery, drawing around 200,000 visitors over ten days. Beach Ball Spider is an absurd amalgamation of two opposing forms: the playful, inflated beach ball and the unsettling, primal arachnid. By replacing the spider’s body, head, and fangs with vibrant beach balls, McDonald disrupts instinctive reactions, inviting viewers to question the boundaries between fear, humor, and reality. The work becomes a metaphor for the absurdity of existence—a once-menacing creature rendered harmless, yet its essence lingers, challenging us to reconcile our perceptions. Following the festival, the award-winning sculpture entered an anonymous private collection.
Dimensions; L 2585x H 1180 x W 2202mm
Materials; Recycled plastic, 316 stainless steel, calcium carbonate, acrylic mural paint.
