A GIANT, fantastical whale-like creature will float through Canberra's skies on Monday.

But no, it's not a representation of government, bureaucracy or democracy.

The Skywhale is artist Patricia Piccinini's latest work, commissioned for the centenary of Canberra.

It is a 34m long, 23m high hot air balloon that took 16 people seven months to create.

Piccinini says the work is one of her most ambitious but also continues her exploration of evolution and nature.

In designing the creature almost three years ago she thought about the evolutionary process that led to mammals leaving the ocean then returning to become whales.

The Skywhale is her imagining of what might be if those same mammals had also taken to the air.

She was also inspired by taking her first ever hot air balloon ride during the creative process.

"I thought it might be much more kind of turbulent and windswept but in fact it's very calm and gentle," she told reporters in Canberra on Thursday.

"I think that the whale ... is very appropriate because whales in general do sort of glide in a very elegant way through the water."

But she doesn't want to give any "official" back story to the creature, unlike many of her other works.

Instead she'll leave it up to people to imagine whether the Skywhale is a yet-to-be-discovered ancient species, the result of genetic engineering, a mythological beast or something else completely.

"Perhaps this might be a catalyst for conversation at a bus stop, or on the lake as you're jogging by," Piccinini said.

"She passes overhead and people will not know why or where she comes from."

Piccinini designed the Skywhale the same way as her other works - "pencil and paper and just my imagination" - before sending off her drawings to Cameron Balloons in Bristol, one of only two companies in the world with the expertise to make such a complicated hot air balloon.

Happily, since her inspiration came from nature which tends to be symmetrical, the final result was very close to her original concept.

Piccinini flew in the balloon for its test flight about three weeks ago, which she described as frightening and exhilarating.

"Being part of this artwork in a way that I really don't have the opportunity to be with my other silicon and fibreglass works," she said.

The $172,000 artwork will be tethered outside the National Gallery of Australia on Saturday morning for a sculpture symposium.

Its official inaugural flight will be over Canberra on Monday.

The Skywhale will then appear at the Museum of Old and New Art in Hobart on June 15-16 and 22-23 and at the Australian Centre for Contemporary Art in Melbourne later this year.