KAWS 'Companion' Float Flies in The Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade

photo by Brian Donnelly

Brooklyn street artist / designer Brian Donnelly (aka “KAWS“) flew a hot air balloon float version of his Original-Fake character Companion (which is part of the Blue Sky Gallery balloon series) through the 86th annual Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade in New York City on November 22nd. We wrote about Brian’s Companion float earlier this year (when it was in the design phase) and how it was going to be included in the parade this year. You can watch below as KAWS discusses how his project came to be in his interviews with with Artinfo and CBS News.

As stated by KAWS on The Wall Street Journal:

“Companion has been a recurring character for me,” says Donnelly. In the past decade, it has been both a toy and a monumental sculpture. Painted gray, white and brown, the figure poses in a seated position, hunched slightly and covering its eyes. “I was thinking, God, if I had to sit there all day and have a million people pass me and stare, I’d be mortified,” says Donnelly. “That would be the worst experience ever. That’s where the pose came from.”