Giant Red Ball Rolling Down The Streets Of Toledo

Huff Po – Nothing gets the ball rolling like imagination unleashed.  The RedBall Project, a traveling art installation by Kurt Perschke, is visiting Toledo, Ohio, at the moment. It’s meant to be a stationary exhibit, but for a brief moment on Wednesday evening that changed. Strong winds dislodged the 15-foot, 250-pound ball from its place in front of a jewelry store and sent it rolling down the street. A bystander captured the ball’s brief jaunt as it turned the corner from Madison Avenue onto St. Clair Street, grazing a stop sign and rolling over parked cars. Members of an impromptu “recovery team,” including museum staff, a waiter, and other passers-by, pursued the ball and quickly got ahold of it, according to The Toledo Blade.  Toledo Museum of Art spokeswoman Kelly Garrow said the ball was damaged in the incident and had to be patched in several places. The ball’s unexpected voyage lends new context to Perschke’s statement about the project. “On the surface, the experience seems to be about the ball itself as an object, but the true power of the project is what it can create for those who experience it,” Perschke said. “[The] invitation to engage, to collectively imagine, is the true essence of the RedBall Project.” Watch Preschke discuss the RedBall Project in an interview with the Urban Institute of Contemporary Arts below.

“You know, Darren, if you had told me twenty-five years ago that some day I’d be standing here about to solve the world’s energy problems, I would’ve said you were crazy. Now let’s push this giant ball of oil out this window.”

When life imitates art. Kramerica Industries out in Toledo apparently.