Sensational-Adelaide.com

Out for a buff - but Balls to bounce back

ANNA VLACH

April 16, 2007 02:15am
Article from: The Advertiser


MEET me where the Mall's Balls used to be.
Arguably Adelaide Rundle Mall's No. 1 landmark, the Spheres, created by artist Bert Flugelman, will be conspicuous by their absence for two months while they have a "spit and polish".

The four-metre high stainless steel sculpture, weighing more than two tonnes, was lifted by crane on to a truck yesterday.

Lord Mayor Michael Harbison and Rundle Mall manager David West were joined by a crowd of onlookers.

Mary Harris, from Gippsland in Victoria, said: "We've got some peculiar things in Melbourne. It's certainly something different."

Former Adelaide resident Michelle Haddad, 22, now living in Melbourne, said she would miss meeting friends at the Balls during her stay. "They're iconic," she said.

Mirror shiny, the sculpture, which is 30 this year, should be back in June with a birthday celebration.

"We could have a ball," Mr Harbison said. "People will be lost without them."

aw no, im meeting people there tomorrow aswell!

i love the balls, it'll be odd to see them gone. but they were looking pretty dirty i noticed on saturday.

The mall is just not the mall without them! I walked down there yesterday and the first thing I noticed was the balls were missing Hurry up and get them back in their rightful place!

it's good to keep the emos away for sometime. Love the balls but hate the vandalization done by the bogans.

looks nice!!!




Balls are back, nicely polished

STUART INNES

June 24, 2007 10:30am

The Malls Balls have returned - two months and $23,000 later - giving back to Adelaide its favourite meeting place.

"I don't know where people have been meeting each other for the past two months," quipped Adelaide City Councillor Richard Hayward as the mirror-surfaced dual-sphere sculpture was lowered back into position in Rundle Mall this morning.

The balls were out of the Mall for a $23,000 refurbishment to rid them of the dents and scratches accumulated in their 30 years.

The 20 years since the last major clean indicates how long this latest restoration will last.

Originally called The Spheres – and given by the Hindmarsh Building Society to mark its centenary in 1977 – the sculpture is now commonly called the Mall's Balls and was the creation of artist Bert Flugelman

"It's like a rebirth seeing this again today," Mr Flugelman said as he watched the sculpture being lowered by crane back onto its base, the final positioning getting applause from a small group of bystanders.

"It looks fantastic. It's as good as new," he said.

Mr Flugelman came from Bowral, New South Wales for the relaunching of the balls, made when he lived in Adelaide for 10 years.

He estimated the sculpture, made of stainless steel, weighed about 500kg.

He said public sculpture was rewarding in that many more people saw the artist's work compared with its being in a gallery.

The balls are back in Rundle Mall in front of the Adelaide Central Plaza by the Charles St junction.

See you there?

Does it still have those blue LEDs around it? I think they look weird.

In that photo it looks like it's raised above the ground.

looking pretty snazzy

Adelaide's balls back where they belong!

Pistol78 wrote:Adelaide's balls back where they belong!

But Adelaide is a 'woman'!

A classic line from Thank God You're Here comes to mind...

"George Mildred is a woman"
"Not always!"

Nice and shiny

"I've got big balls
I've got big balls
They're such big balls
And they're dirty big balls...."

...not any more.

Look how shiny they are!

how many bad taste jokes do you know in reference to those balls? (and the pigs for that mater