How do you stop a 15-foot-tall, 250-pound ball when it’s rolling down the street, running over cars and treating the city like a giant pinball machine? Employees at the Toledo Museum in Ohio had to figure out the answer to that question really quickly one day last August when a storm swept through the city, dislodging the giant sculpture from its perch on a downtown rooftop and sending it barreling through the streets as if it had a mind of its own. It even pauses at an intersection and then makes a left turn, as if trying to determine the best escape route, as the frantic museum workers run after it.

An observer who happened to be on an adjacent rooftop captured much of the ensuing chaos and put the clips on Instagram and YouTube. Luckily, the ball is inflatable, so there was no risk of it actually crushing the cars it rolled right over, though it did bend a few street signs and freak out a few drivers. The ball itself, created by artist Kurt Perschke, sustained a little bit of damage on its adventure, but returned to the museum to finish out its residence in Toledo.

The sculpture has traveled around the world, lodged in every imaginable urban nook and cranny, from alleyways in London and bridges in Paris to the Montreal Biosphere and Chicago’s Grant Park. It’s currently en route to Memphis, Tennessee to begin its next residency.

“Through the RedBall Project I utilize my opportunity as an artist to be a catalyst for new encounters within the everyday,” says Perschke. “Through the magnetic, playful and charismatic nature of the RedBall the work is able to access the imagination embedded in all of us. On the surface, the experience seems to be about the ball itself as an object, but the true power of the project is what it can create for those who experience it. It opens a doorway to imagine what if?”

That last statement is especially true when the question is, “What if the ball gets loose and runs around the city?” It’s kind of a shame it didn’t get to travel farther before it was captured and returned.

Jarringly out-of-place in Abu Dhabi’s Emirates Palace and the St. Peter Mancroft Church in Norwich, England, a massive inflatable red ball perches on balconies, squeezes through doorways and hovers above the streets. The RedBall Project by Kurt Perschke has taken the sphere to public places around the world, providing a fun interactive experience.

(top image via: personnel people; above images via: leo reynolds, imaginethis55)

Coming upon the ball squeezed into an alleyway in the town of Norwich or lodged between buildings above a bridge in Chicago, you can’t help but feel a childlike sense of delight. In addition to the cities named, the RedBall project has traveled to Taipei, Grand Rapids, Toronto, Portland, Sydney, Barcelona and St. Louis as well as Scottsdale, Arizona.

(images via: rob andrews, grdadof3)

“Through the RedBall Project I utilize my opportunity as an artist to be a catalyst for new encounters within the everyday. Through the magnetic, playful, and charismatic nature of the RedBall the work is able to access the imagination embedded in all of us. On the surface, the experience seems to be about the ball itself as an object, but the true power of the project is what it can create for those who experience it. It opens a doorway to imagine what if?”

(images via: leo reynolds, harry harris)

“As RedBall travels around the world people approach me on the street with excited suggestions about where to put it in their city. In that moment the person is not a spectator but a participant in the act of imagination.”

(images via: kenneth spencer, redball project)

See more photos at RedBallProject.com or at the RedBall Flickr pool.