To celebrate the opening of Tate Modern’s major autumn exhibition Pop Life: Art in a Material World, a giant 53 foot (16 metre) helium balloon by Jeff Koons has been unveiled today at Covent Garden in London. It is the first time that Koons’s Rabbit balloon has been shown in the UK .

Photos by Butterfly

Jeff Koons created the large-scale silver balloon for Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade 2007 in New York. He modelled it on his iconic metre-high stainless steel sculpture Rabbit 1986. The silver rabbit was floated down the streets of Broadway through the crowds to celebrate the occasion. Both the original sculpture and a film of the balloon in Macy’s Day Parade are included in Pop Life: Art in a Material World.

Rabbit is on display in the South Hall, Market Building, Covent Garden, London.

Pop Life: Art in a Material World  is on display at Tate Modern from 1 October – 17 January 2010.