remember the fantastic ‘sultan’s elephant‘ (above) that paraded through london in 2006, instantly astounding all who were lucky enough to witness its walk around the city? well the creative geniuses behind that phenomenal piece of street theatre have just started to unveil their new piece of work in liverpool, entitled ‘la machine‘, and it looks to be an equally creepy affair….



during the past 24hrs this gigantic, mechanical, 37ton, 50ft tall spider, complete with 50 hydraulic axes of movement, appeared on the side of a soon-to-be demolished building near the heart of the city, instantly creating a buzz in the area. there’s been talk for the past few weeks about the show’s main star and until the spider appeared last night very few people knew of the form it would take. here are some more images from earlier today. check out the mechanics and seating areas on its back…



i was contacted by 2 people today about this project, one of whom sent across a photo of what she believes to be the same spider with legs extended from a previous date. i have no way of verifying it but it definitely looks similar. i also have no idea where this was taken but i’m presuming it was during either practice or testing prior to the extremely secretive event as the guy behind these animals, françois delarozière, has never before unveiled a spider like this to the public…



according to the liverpool08 website (click here to see a schedule), this incredible beast will be waking up, descending to street level and then causing havoc around liverpool until sunday. from the looks of it we should be in for a good show - as and when it happens i’ll try and get some more pics and hopefully video up.

thanks to paul and naomi for the tip

photo sources: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5