{"id":362909,"date":"2025-12-21T17:20:06","date_gmt":"2025-12-21T17:20:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/362909\/"},"modified":"2025-12-21T17:20:06","modified_gmt":"2025-12-21T17:20:06","slug":"out-of-the-blue-whale-sculpture-in-slcs-9th-and-9th-will-soon-get-a-new-look","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/362909\/","title":{"rendered":"“Out of the Blue” whale sculpture in SLC’s 9th and 9th will soon get a new look"},"content":{"rendered":"

Artist Stephen Kesler talks about how his \u201cOut of the Blue\u201d sculpture has become a symbol for the offbeat 9th and 9th neighborhood.<\/p>\n

(Francisco Kjolseth | The Salt Lake Tribune) Salt Lake City\u2019s 9th and 9th neighborhood whale is pictured on Saturday, Dec. 20, 2025. The sculpture will be repainted in 2026 and artists interested in painting a new mural on \u201cOut of the Blue\u201d can apply for the work by Jan. 2.<\/p>\n

When Stephen Kesler first designed his \u201cOut of the Blue\u201d sculpture that now looms over Salt Lake City\u2019s 9th and 9th neighborhood, he had no idea how big an effect the artwork, known as \u201cthe whale,\u201d would have on the community.<\/p>\n

Situated in the center of the roundabout at 900 South and 1100 East, the massive sculpture of a whale has watched over marathoners running 630 laps around the sculpture<\/a>, been hailed as a bringer of snow<\/a> and inspired other artists to create \u201cAll Hail the Whale\u201d<\/a> works.<\/p>\n

Soon, though, what\u2019s become an icon is set for a change in iconography. The Salt Lake City Arts Council has issued a public call for artists<\/a> to apply for a chance to create a new mural on the sculpture.<\/p>\n

Painter Mike Murdock created the mural, called \u201cPoint of Reference,\u201d as the sculpture\u2019s inaugural paint job. But the arts council always intended to give the whale a new design scheme periodically, to create \u201ca dynamic and ever-changing visual centerpiece.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kesler, who was invited by the arts council to help judge the submissions, said he\u2019s excited to have a say in the whale\u2019s next development.<\/p>\n

Kesler said he thinks Murdock\u2019s work contributed to making the whale as popular as it is, and said the mural will forever live on as the rotating art installation\u2019s first layer.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe rotating mural is something I really loved about the [arts council\u2019s] idea for the roundabout,\u201d Kesler said. \u201cOf course, there will be many debates on old versus new murals, but that\u2019s not necessarily a bad thing. Public art is there to invite community discussion.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kesler said he\u2019s excited to see the next round of submissions \u2014 and said the whale\u2019s history has already shown how there\u2019s room for competing ideas to find a sense of belonging.<\/p>\n

When the arts council first accepted Kesler\u2019s concept for the sculpture, he said some people referred to his whale as \u201cthe Destroyer of Gnomes\u201d<\/a> that locals had placed in the roundabout during the COVID-19 pandemic. He said he became aware of the feud between the gnomes and the whale when people began sending him articles and social media posts.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe funny thing is, there was never a plan to remove them; they were back after the whale was installed. They now coexist with the whale. There\u2019s room for everyone,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Kesler said he\u2019s been happy to see that the artwork has been largely embraced, even as some initially didn\u2019t think a ginormous whale sculpture was fitting for a neighborhood in Utah hundreds of miles from an ocean.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was told by many people after the installation that there are actually no whales in Utah,\u201d he said. \u201cIf I had known, I would have done a kangaroo. You know, something indigenous to Utah.\u201d<\/p>\n

Salt Lake County artists interested in painting a new mural on \u201cOut of the Blue\u201d can apply for the work by Jan. 2. The new mural is expected to be finished by late summer 2026, according to the art council\u2019s request for qualifications. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Artist Stephen Kesler talks about how his \u201cOut of the Blue\u201d sculpture has become a symbol for the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":362910,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[449,458,459,64,63,197497,460,134,1999,99820,197498],"class_list":{"0":"post-362909","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-arts-and-design","8":"tag-arts","9":"tag-arts-and-design","10":"tag-artsanddesign","11":"tag-au","12":"tag-australia","13":"tag-budget-building-tips","14":"tag-design","15":"tag-entertainment","16":"tag-finances","17":"tag-jp-morgan-chase","18":"tag-planning-a-budget"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/362909","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=362909"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/362909\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/362910"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=362909"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=362909"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=362909"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}