Balloonists

 

Fiona Tan
Jeppe Hein
Poppy Jane Lee
Martin Creed
Jeanne Quinn
COOP HIMMELB(L)AU
Balloon Factory
Todd Robinson
Lee Boroson
Cheryl Pope
Dan Steinhilber
Bina Baitel
Object Design League
Tadao Cern
Tomas Saraceno
Omer Polak and Michal Evyater
Tim Hawkinson
Olivier Grossetête
Spencer Finch
Tom Hillewaere
Torafu Architects
David Colombini
Ahmet Ögüt
Nancy Davidson
Philippe Parreno
General Idea
Vincent Leroy
Me
Otto Piene
Masayoshi Matsumoto
Gordon Matta-Clark
Graham Lee
Lee Bul
Junya Ishigami
Jan Hakon Erichsen
Junya Ishigami
Aliaksei Zholner
Francesc Torres
Kris Martin
Sturtevant

 

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Fiona Tan Tilt, 2002
‘Tilt is a video by Fiona Tan of a toddler strapped into a harness suspended from a cluster of white helium-filled balloons in a room with wooden floorboards. The gurgling toddler floats gently into the air before descending to the ground, the little feet scrabbling for traction before gently ascending again.’

 

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Jeppe Hein Some see a Balloon, some see a Wish, 2021
Glass fiber reinforced plastic, chrome laquer (dark green, light blue), magnet, string

 

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Jeanne Quinn A Thousand Tiny Deaths (2009)
For A Thousand Tiny Deaths, Jeanne Quinn inflated approximately 50 balloons inside black vases and then suspended them from the ceiling. As the balloons slowly deflated, the vases dropped, crashing into pieces on a platform below.

 

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COOP HIMMELB(L)AU City Soccer, 1971
‘COOP HIMMELB(L)AU was founded by Wolf D. Prix, Helmut Swiczinsky, and Michael Holzer in Vienna, Austria, in 1968, and is active in architecture, urban planning, design, and art. In the project City Soccer in 1971, the practice released four giant inflatable footballs onto the streets of Vienna to bring a sense of creative liberation to the streets.’

 

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Poppy Jane Lee Bed Skewer, 2016
plastic rafts, air, metal poles

 

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Martin Creed Half the air in a given space (1998 – 2017)
A celebrated suite of pieces made with balloons, the monochromatic and formless sea of spheres offers visitors an opportunity to navigate the work from within—while also challenging them to consider that the location of art can be found somewhere between physical experience and sculptural construct.

 

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Balloon Factory Japan Premium Beef (2012)
Balloon Factory was invited by Sight Unseen to design a window installation for Japan Premium Beef as part of the NoHo Design District, a recurring gathering of off-site design events during the annual International Contemporary Furniture Fair in New York each year. For Japan Premium Beef, a selection of uninflated balloons (shaped like sausages and different cuts of steak: porterhouse, flank, filet mignon, and T-bone) were displayed on butcher trays, framed by an installation of hanging sausage balloon links. This iteration carries a strong reference to the intricate fake food prevalent in restaurant windows in Japan. A limited edition run of 40 meat balloons were made available for sale at the BF web shop.

 

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Todd Robinson Oooh… (2014)
Colorful, squishy {yet solid?}, lazy-looking balloons made of hydrocal, polyester filler, and paint.

 

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Bina Baitel Inflatable Fountain, 2022
‘With Inflatable fountain, Bina Baitel merges the industrial universe of inflatable products with the architectural language of urban fountains. In between an industrial production and a traditional structure, a series of superimposed buoys define the shape of a monumental fountain.’

 

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Lee Boroson Uplift (2014)
Uplift comprises an array of inflatable fabric forms molded into stalactites to evoke the architecture of the underworld, providing room for contemplation in a dark, primordial chamber.

 

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Cheryl Pope Up Against (2010)
One of Cheryl Pope’s performances, Up against, involves the popping of water-filled balloons hanging from the ceiling with only her head. Upon witnessing the performance I realized that it is also an inner struggle that Cheryl is coming to terms with. She explains this as “clearing the air.”

 

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Dan Steinhilber Untitled (2005)
A manly action-painting made from knotted balloons. (As they deflate over days, this pseudo-Jackson Pollock goes limp.)

 

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Object Design League Balloon Factory (2012)
Balloons are familiar and loved objects, but few people realize that with some amateur kitchen chemistry techniques, the process for manufacturing them can be replicated on a small scale. Product designers Caroline Linder, Lisa Smith, Michael Savona, Thomas Moran, and Steven Haulenbeek—all members of design collective Object Design League—aimed to demystify and illustrate each step of this process with their Balloon Factory on-site at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago from July 5th through 10th. Freshly-made balloons were available in limited numbers from the MCA Store for the duration of the event.

 

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Tadao Cern Black Balloons (2016)
Born out of Lithuanian architect-cum-artist Tadao Cern’s fixation to connect two balloons and spurred by his “childlike sense of discovery”, the experimentation produced such overwhelming results that he decided to evolve it into a more ambitious project. Using two different gasses, helium and sulfur hexafluoride—the former lighter than air, the other heavier—he managed to create a sculptural equilibrium where two balloons float in space connected with a metallic string in opposition to each other. This motif was then used to create considerably more elaborate configurations, some of which comprised of more than 400 balloons, meticulously arranged with great geometrical precision in rows or grids. Alternatively, they are displayed inside glass tanks where they float without any kind of support, a technique Cern devised especially for the project.

 

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Tomas Saraceno On Space Time Foam (2013)
Based on various kinds of knowledge, from quntum physics, art and different kinds of theories of the evolution of the universe, this is the largest inflatable installation EVER made.

 

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Omer Polak and Michal Evyater Blow Dough (2014)
Israeli designers Omer Polak and Michal Evyater1 have created an experimental food lab that gives diners the satisfaction of knowing where everything—right down to the aroma—comes from. Blow Dough lab is a peculiar combination of performance art and catering, during which visitors use custom-made, high performance baking tools to cook crispy bread balloons filled with herbal scents. Polak collaborated with Israeli baker and chef Erez Komorovsky, to “do something new with this chef who knows everything about dough,” Polak says. “It sounds very easy, but if you want to make the dough flexible, you have to really understand it.” Blow Dough works like this: Visitors take a small amount of pre-kneaded dough to individual baking tables, which are each rigged with an industrial blower (typically used by industrial designers for heating and bending plastic) and a small compartment for herbs and vegetables. The “baker” puts a slab of the dough over the herb container and the blower, which emits a blast of 1,000-degree heat. This does three things: bakes the dough, inflates the dough into a balloon of bread, and transfers the herb odors inside the bread, creating an aromatic air pocket. Then they bite into them. “It’s very weird,” Polak says, “because it’s crispy, but when you bite it, it’s nothing, just smells.”

 

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Tim Hawkinson Balloon Self-Portrait (1993)
latex, air

 

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Olivier Grossetête Pont de Singe (2012)
French artist Olivier Grossetête used three enormous helium balloons to float a rope bridge over a lake in Tatton Park, a historic estate in north-west England. Located in the park’s Japanese garden, the structure comprised a long rope bridge made of cedar wood held aloft by three helium-filled balloons. The ends of the bridge were left to trail in the water.

 

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Spencer Finch Sky (Over Coney Island, November 26th, 2004, 12:47pm. Southwest view over the Cyclone.) (2004)
Balloons, helium and string

 

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Tom Hillewaere Valse Sentimentale (2006)
As Massumi states: “There are uses of language that can bring that inadequation between language and experience to the fore in a way that can convey the ‘too much’ of the situation – its charge – in a way that actually fosters new experiences.” Belgian artist Tom Hillewaere exemplifies this unique attempt in his installation Valse Sentimentale. Set to the haunting sound of Tchaikovsky’s Valse Sentimentale, interpreted by Clara Rockmore on the Theremin, Hillewaere’s piece offers a white balloon attached to a simple black marker on a string. Surrounded by fans, the balloon oscillates lightly across a large white surface upon which the balloon traces simple lines as it traverses the space.

 

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Brad Adkins Untitled (pink balloon end) (2006)

 

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Torafu Architects Water Balloon Room (2014)
torafu architects have designed the ‘water balloon’, a luminaire that has the same visual properties as a single droplet of liquid. small air bubbles fill the glass bulb, resembling tiny particles of carbonation trapped inside. lit by an LED source hidden at its crown, the light that filters through reflects off both the small spheres accumulated inside and the asymmetrical tear shape.

 

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David Colombini Attachment (2014)
Attachment, a poetic machine connected to a website, allows you to send messages, images, or videos into the air through a biodegradable balloon. The basic idea was to take a stand against the current use of “smart” technologies by creating a poetic concept, using current technology that allows us to communicate differently and rediscover expectation, random and the unexpected. The site allows you, by entering your name and e-mail, to send a message and attach a picture, sound, or video. Once your content is validated, the machine prints the message and a code on an  sheet, slips it into a biopolymer cylinder attached to a balloon, which is released into the air. The balloon then travels haphazardly to a potential recipient.

 

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Ahmet Ögüt Castle of Vooruit (2015)
Ögüt takes the socialist history of Ghent as the starting point for The Castle of Vooruit. He concentrates on the Vooruit, the cooperative where the working-class people of Ghent assembled from the end of the nineteenth century until the early 1970s and which ran both a centre for festive occasions and a newspaper. Making reference to ‘Le Chateau des Pyrénées’ (1961) by the Belgian surrealist painter Rene Magritte, Ögüt is sending up a gigantic helium balloon in the shape of Magritte’s floating rock, launched near the Vooruit Arts Centre. He is replacing the mysterious castle on top with a replica of the Vooruit building.

 

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Nancy Davidson Cowgirl Dustup (2012)
‘Davidson is a sculptor and video artist known for making larger-than-life inflatable sculptures in an ongoing exploration of American icons and Feminist issues. Cowgirl Dustup offers a humorous, absurdist critique of the American cowgirl depicted in popular culture. With this massive inflatable sculpture, suspended in midair and measuring 21 x 16 x 16 feet, Davidson presents the iconic cowgirl as a spectacle to admire, a tall-tale fantasy of western legend.’

 

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Philippe Parreno Anywhen (2016)
French artist Philippe Parreno’s new work – Anywhen – is the latest large-scale commission in the museum’s Turbine Hall. He describes the work as an ever-changing experience “that plays with time and space”. A shoal of helium-filled fish float about the cavernous space to a surreal soundtrack from overhead speakers. Some of the sounds are piped in live from microphones outside Tate Modern – which raises the prospect of a busker on the South Bank being heard inside the hall.

 

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General Idea Magi© Bullet (1992)
Riffing on Andy Warhol’s Silver Clouds (1966), General Idea infiltrated this form, turning its inflatables into the shape of pills and branding them like pharmaceuticals with the group’s name and the work’s title. As balloons do, they gradually lose their helium and begin their slow descent to the ground. The life cycle of these objects is part of the work; as the balloons are displaced to the ground, visitors are encouraged to take one with them, participating in the dissemination of the work beyond the Museum’s walls.

 

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Vincent Leroy Boreal Halo, 2022
‘The massive inflatable ring rotates to the beat of a unique soundtrack, created by Jérôme Echenoz, adding an extra dimension to the experience. The audio background features sounds captured from all over the world, combined with infra-bass, and throbbing vibrations.’

 

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Me Ojisora (2014)
No doubt dozens of necks suddenly snapped in a group double-take as residents suddenly realized that’s no moon… it’s the enormous inflated head of one of their neighbors! Give credit to Japanese art trio Me (in collaboration with the Utsunomiya Museum of Art) for the uniquely unusual “Ojisora” project, an artistic effort spanning over two years from conception to realization. Its origin rests with one of the three artists, Haruka Kojin (above, right), who as a junior high school student dreamed of an old man’s grossly enlarged and disembodied head floating over town and country. Upon awakening from her dream, Kojin quickly sketched her recollection and then just as quickly forgot about it. Many years later, she came across her sketch and wondered… was there some way to recreate her dream in real life? After consulting with her two co-artists and with the support of the Utsunomiya Museum of Art, Kojin took the first step towards realizing – and sharing on a mass scale – her odd dream from so many years before.

 

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Otto Piene The Proliferation of The Sun (1967)
‘The Proliferation of the Sun, originally conceived in 1967, is a 25-minute multimedia performance, using hundreds of painted slides, sound, and several projectors. Colorful shimmering shapes on hundreds of hand-painted glass slides are projected onto a massive balloon and huge multi-screen array, creating what Piene called a “poetic journey through space.” The visitor is immersed in projections that splay across various surfaces. Piene reminds the viewer of the magic of the projected image, which is even more beguiling when you can immerse yourself in it and become overwhelmed by the scale and light.

 

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Masayoshi Matsumoto various (2015 – 2016)
Japanese artist Masayoshi Matsumoto makes his amazingly detailed balloon animals with no glue or seals – then pops them when he’s done.

 

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Gordon Matta-Clark Sky Hook (Studies for a Balloon Building), 1978
‘In 1978, after his Building Cuts, Gordon Matta-Clark began working on Sky Hooks (Study for a Balloon Building). This project wanted to create a form of vital aerial space attached to buildings without involving the use of urban land and thus avoiding all real estate speculation.’

 

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Junya Ishigami balloon, 2007
‘Junya Ishigami’s “balloon” is a massive reflecting object that floats suspended in the atrium of the museum. Weighing just under a ton, the sculpture, built from light gauge steel trusses and reflective aluminum panels, is filled with an equilibrium of helium that allows it to hover precariously over visitors heads below, and is free from any connections to its surroundings.’

 

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Graham Lee Untitled, 2018
‘Mr. Lee gave up being an electrician after around eight years of doing magic and balloon modelling but it was later that he decided to take his work further. He said: “I was at a magic convention and on a table there was a one-balloon model of a hippo. I tried to figure out how he’d done it and it was then that I got the idea of going further with it so I went to some workshops and lectures and it went from there.’

 

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Lee Bul Willing To Be Vulnerable, 2015-2016
Metalised film, transparent film, blower fan, electronic wiring, 300 x 300 x 1700 cm

 

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Jan Hakon Erichsen Destruction Diary, 2018 –
‘The Norwegian artist is on a mission to destroy every balloon he encounters with an endless array of awkward Rube Goldberg-esque setups.’

 

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Aliaksei Zholner Действующий оргАн из бумаги, 2017
‘Paper engineer Aliaksei Zholner brings his crafty talents to the musical realm with this working paper organ. The tiny organ has 18 functional keys that create tones with the aid of corresponding reeds, and of course a pipe organ can’t function without a steady air flow, a problem Zholner solves with a large balloon.’

 

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Francesc Torres Inflatable Structure Containing Fog, 1969
‘In the mid-sixties, before his work turned towards installation and a critical reflection on power and the collective memory, Francesc Torres made a series of inflatable structures belong in this context. On one occasion, he submitted a bubble full of air that had turned slightly green to the effects of the waves. On another, he filled a large inflatable structure with fog.’

 

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Kris Martin T.Y.F.F.S.H., 2011
‘The art installment is an actual capsized hot air balloon. It is an interactive piece in which viewers can put booties over their shoes and explore the inside of the hot air balloon. Kris Martin created this installment in 2011 and it was intended to transport the viewer into a fantasy from which the viewer could draw their own conclusions on the meaning or possibilities provided by the piece.’

 

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Sturtevant Sex Dolls, 2012
’15 inflatable sex dolls, all but two of them male, with cartoonish printed chest hair and blank bulges between their legs.’

 

 

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p.s. Hey. ** tomk, Hi, Tom! Me too: Zelda’s newest birth comes at my busiest time, urgh. Yes, I bookmarked the link to your piece on ergot. In fact, … Everyone, The amazing writer Thomas Kendall has a new fiction piece up at the ergot. site. Highly recommended. It’s called ‘A Clearing’, and it’s here. Awesome, the arc. I’ll go look for that in my email. Super exciting, thank you. Best of luck getting swiftly to the other side of the joblessness onset. Any interesting prospects or ideals therewith? ** A, Little AC here in Paris too, although I assume they’re preparing for the new world. Yes, I liked Boards of Canada, sure. I … don’t remember when I read ‘Paradoxia’, time wise. I have no qualms whatsoever using online cheats when playing games. I don’t give the slightest shit whether I can beat the bosses. I just want to skip them or get by them so I can keep wandering around. ** Jack Skelley, Jackerino. Squrls, wow. Mum’s the word. If you’re going to go that route, what about Bush Tetras? Steve Shelley’s their drummer now. Exciting shit, buddy. ** Dominik, My pleasure re: the book suggestions, of course. Love can never make things involving refined sugar healthy too often. I’ve been craving a Pop Tart the last couple of days, so maybe I’ll test out love’s powers. Any fun things coming up or having happened this weekend? Love making King Charles’s coronation the most shocking thing anyone in the world has ever seen in their entire lives, G. ** Misanthrope, Write things down. Keep a little calendar/planning chart. I do that. It, you know, helps. I think you’re right about Bernard. Eileen seems to be reading in every city in North America right now. As a workaholic of sorts, your procrastination almost sounds utopian. ** _Black_Acrylic, LKS’s new book is lovely. I don’t know that Sade book. Huh, Tempting. Especially as an audio experience for some reason. Enjoy, if that’s the word. ** Sypha, Wow, Front Line Assembly. I totally forgot about them. You’re on an industrial mission there. You make me want to go listen to à;GRUMH again and see what happens. I’m like the opposite, I originally only played PC games, but then I got a console and was so happy to find a way to do things away from my computer that I only rarely went back. Is the research on medieval history for a writing project? ** Darbs, Hi. I hope your weekend is good too. Well, I don’t know if mine’ll be good yet, so I just hope yours is good whatever mine ends up being. The LA punk scene was pretty small and tight, so you pretty much knew or at least bumped into everybody else regularly. How’s your roommate? I hope you see your best friend. The things you mention don’t seem weird or unnatural to me in the slightest, but I’m fairly weird myself, so … I played the first ‘Animal Crossing’, and I got so addicted to it — like I couldn’t stop playing it even after I finished the through-line — that I had to force myself to stop playing it, and I made a vow never to play an ‘Animal Crossing’ game again. But I’m tempted. Those artists sound interesting, obviously. Did you manage a blast or many blasts over your weekend, I hope, I hope? Love back from me! ** Steve Erickson, I know people here with VPN who claim it works perfectly, but mine doesn’t, at least when streaming is involved, that’s for sure. I don’t know La Tenee, and I just looked and couldn’t a single thing about them. Huh. ** Philip Hopbell, Hey, Philip. ‘The Counterfeiters’ was a huge book for me when I was still a young wanna be novelist. I can imagine his diaries are something, from what I know re: him. I just found out that Guyotat is buried in Paris, and in fact I have tentative plans to go find and visit his grave this weekend. ** alex, Hi, alex. Cool that the book suggestions mattered. I don’t know that Yellow Swans album, no. I’ll check it out. When I put on music while I’m writing, which I haven’t done in quite a while weirdly, I think I listen to the same realm of music that you do. I used to write to Autechre quite a bit for a while. Very inspiring. A sailboat, wow. That’s interesting. So then you’ll sail around in it? That’s a dumb question, I guess. I had a friend in LA with a sailboat, but I get seasick at the tiniest drop of the tiniest hat, so I only went out with him once and borderline vomited the whole time. Fun! ** Travis (fka Cal), Well, yeah, the hopping around. You do have to end up choosing one project as the #1 eventually. Are any of yours especially compelling-meets -doable? I obviously think finishing your novel sounds like a keeper of an idea, but of course I would. ** analrapist, Baseball’s rules are super complicated. They’re multilayered, which is why I’m drawn to it. It’s highly structured and kind of experimental too in a weird way. I’ll look for the SecretBase doc, thanks. Football aka soccer is massive here, of course. And I do like it. I’ve only been to one game live, I don’t know why. No one I know goes to games, although a lot of people I know watch the games onscreen in bars and cafes. Pretty sweet game, yeah. The French (at least) call football ‘the beautiful game’, and I get that. ** Okay. I decided to give you a weekend full of balloons for whatever reason. There you go. See you on Monday.