A pod surfacing in light
The drama of an orca is the breach, the moment the body leaves the water, and this piece is built in that instant. Three orcas are arranged as a pod mid-surface, bodies arched so the flank and the white belly patch catch the light from below. On an aquarium forecourt or a waterfront festival centre it becomes the marine centrepiece, the thing families queue to photograph because the arched bodies read as motion even when the piece is still.
The white patch has to sit on a curved flank
An orca's marking is a hard edge: matte black flank, clean white belly patch, with the line running along the curve of the body. On an arched, three-dimensional surface that line has to stay true or the animal looks wrong from half the angles. We paint the patches after the silk is stretched over the shaped armature, following the contour so the white sits correctly whether the visitor is below the breach or beside it. The black is layered matte so it does not glare under the LED.
Lighting the surfacing from underneath
The pod is lit from below, because a real breach is backlit by the water it leaves. Each whale is its own lighting zone, so the three can be tuned to surface in sequence or hold together as one glow, and the white belly patches read brighter than the black flanks. The 5W-class CE LED bulbs sit behind fire-retardant satin silk painted in layered black and white, and the low angle is what gives the group its sense of rising out of the ground.
Siting the centrepiece
This piece needs a central, open location with sightlines from several directions, because it is built to be walked around rather than viewed from one side. It is built in the Zigong workshop to your site on the XL-AN series, 0.6 to 6 m class, life-size, and the pod layout means a cluster of base fixings sized for the local wind load. Fixing plans and the electrical schedule are issued with the pod, and we install on site or assist your contractors remotely, whichever suits the project.
