Crab Devil ‘Bait Ball’ finds permanent home at Fairgrounds St. Pete art attraction

Just keep swimming.

By Ray Roa on Wed, Jan 24, 2024 at 3:27 pm

Photo c/o Press Marketing

'The Bait Ball' at Fairgrounds in St. Petersburg, Florida.

While Ybor Heights art compound Crab Devil won’t ever open, parts of it have found a home elsewhere in Tampa Bay.

“The Bait Ball," a kinetic sculpture by Tampa artist and Crab Devil founder Devon Brady, is swimming across the Bay and will be unveiled to the public this week at the immersive art installation Fairgrounds St. Pete.

Devoted art lovers might remember the eight-foot “zoetrope” from the 2022 Gasparilla Festival of the Arts where lucky festivalgoers got to experience the way 3D printing, light, motion, and sound create a hypnotizing display that looked like fish swimming in a ball.

Brady told Creative Loafing Tampa Bay that four 3D printers worked 24/7 for 10 weeks to create the approximately 254 fish (13 different designs), which work in conjunction with the sphere to create a trippy illusion

The “Bait Ball” debut happens Thursday, Jan. 25 at Fairgrounds St. Pete, where admission starts at $19.

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About The Author

Ray Roa

Read his 2016 intro letter and disclosures from 2022 and 2021. Ray Roa started freelancing for Creative Loafing Tampa in January 2011 and was hired as music editor in August 2016. He became Editor-In-Chief in August 2019. Past work can be seen at Suburban Apologist, Tampa Bay Times, Consequence of Sound and The...

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