Giant Pink Snails spotted on Interstate 65 heading to Louisville (Courtesy William Morrow)
Giant Pink Snails spotted on Interstate 65 heading to Louisville (Courtesy William Morrow)
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In what could be a scene from Doctor Dolittle, a truck load of giant pink snails was spotted heading into Louisville today on Interstate 65. While such a story could be misconstrued as only some April Fool’s fun, these plastic sculptures by The Cracking Art Group (yes, the same artists who created the 21C Museum Hotel’s signature red penguins) are really Bluegrass bound.

While we couldn’t confirm with the usual suspects, the 21C of course, it seems likely that these 11-foot-long Pink Snails are—slowly—headed for Downtown. According to the Facebook page for Cracking Art Group, “They’re moving to Louisville, KY. from blue sea to bluegrass ;)” And while they might be the worst long-shot surprise entry into the Kentucky Derby of all time, they can raise awareness of recycling and the environment.

Made of recycled plastics reclaimed from landfills, the snails are part of the international REgeneration Art Project and have already travelled through Paris, Milan, Prague, Miami Beach, and Coral Gables. From the Pink Snail’s web site:

The snails symbolize nature created from recycled, artificial material, and leaves a minimal carbon footprint, which is to encourage people to re-examine existing perceptions of urban life, and inspire us to play with our cities, as well as to mentally and physically rejuvenate them, in other words, to REgenerate them into more healthy, vibrant, animated and loving environments.

Hopefully Louisville’s hospitality will be better than Miami’s where the snails were vandalized with graffiti and thrown into the Biscayne Bay.

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Branden Klayko

10 COMMENTS

  1. yay! you’re here!

    i’ve enjoyed having a red penguin sit at my table before. not so sure about those snails…

  2. Great article and great information on the use of recycled goods. It would have been awesome to see this truck traveling on the road.

  3. With the rate at which our city is entering the 21st century. we might as well make Giant Pink Snails our state mollusk. Yes, we are gay-friendly, but where’s our reliable and extensive public transit? Where’s our comprehensive solutions to homelessness, poverty, crime and food deserts? Why do we still hope jobs in Peak-Oil-dependent industries like Ford & UPS, will save us in the new world economy?
    Oh yeah, and why are we still creating unsustainable suburbs, as we let our inner city decay? Yes, I’m talking to you, Mayor Gregory Fischer, Supreme Leader of the Giant Pink Snails.

  4. If a suburb is in a city that generates most of its energy from renewables and everyone living in said suburb has an electric car, is it still unsustainable? I’m being facetious as that doesn’t take global supply chains into account but, seriously, don’t the chances of technology allowing a shift away from petroleum products seem more likely than a large scale shift away from middle/upper-middle class folks w/ families (especially those living in the South and Midwest) wanting to live in the suburbs?

    Of course no city has solved all of those problems, I think Curtis was suggesting the pace at which Louisville is addressing them has been somewhat (or even very) slow.

    Regarding public transit, here is a simple small step that would go a long way to making Louisville accessible without a car- please keep TARC running to the airport until the last flight! For those of us that don’t want to pay for parking it is really frustrating when the bus will get you to the airport but when you return past 11pm or so you are stuck and there really is no safe way to leave on foot. Granted few people going to/from the airport use TARC but still, it would be a nice amenity (and would have made last night much cheaper!).

  5. Curtis needs to get a life (and get laid).

    All he does is whine and complain about everything in the city. Here’s a suggestion – stop pontificating about how everything sucks and get a real job going to work to make things better. Total whiner.

  6. I have to agree with both Curtis and Jared (though not with the insult part; come on y’all lets be civil). The year 2011 finds Louisville as a city with two distinct images. The first is that of a green, progressive city with a world-class park system, a rapidly expanding network of bicycling infrastructure, and an impressive local food scene. The other is that of a city on the southern fringe of the Rustbelt that is stuck in the past, with a significant portion of the downtown area serving as a giant parking lot, a terrible mass-transit system, and of course that damn Ohio River Bridges Project. We are at a crossroads ladies and gentlemen; the decisions that will be made over the next few years will decide which path our city will take. In order to ensure that it takes the right one, we must do as Jared suggests and get to work.

  7. Glad to see you guys up and posting again. I actually found this website during your break and was worried it had been abandoned. yay for pink snails! Any word on where they currently are?

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