inflatable

Posts tagged
with inflatable

Art Design

Monumental Bubbles Pop Up in Public Spaces in Atelier Sisu’s Inflatable Installations

Whether illuminated by the sun or spotlights, the undulating layers of Atelier Sisu’s playful installations are a presence in public spaces. The Sydney-based studio, which is a collaboration between artists Renzo B. Larriviere and Zara Pasfield, celebrates community interaction and joy in their vibrant, inflatable designs. A buttress between art and architecture, their practice focuses on the interaction between art and the surrounding environment. “Our aim is not simply to create something beautiful or a temporary sculpture but to re-interpret our public spaces through architectural choices,” the studio says in a statement.

Atelier Sisu’s self-described “bubble-tecture” is exemplified in the iridescent spheres of “Evanescent,” which features enormous, translucent orbs that stick one another and appear to tumble across lawns or plazas. Conceived during the pandemic when the artists, like many of us, were faced with uncertainty and began to more closely consider the delicate balance of stability and the fleeting nature of time, the studio “endeavoured to communicate this feeling of transient beauty and the need to live in the moment through the idea of the bubble.” The piece has been displayed in more than 22 different cities in 12 different countries.

“Evanescent” is currently on view at Leadenhall Market in London through February 10. You can find more work on the studio’s website, and follow updates on Instagram.

 

Art Craft

Balloon-Like Sculptures Reimagine Blown Glass in Matthew Szösz’s ‘Inflatables’ Series

The art of blown glass takes on new meaning in Matthew Szösz’s Inflatables series. About 15 years ago, the artist was interested in challenging assumptions about how the material could be worked and what form it could take. “In the craft and design field, the way that we make things has a profound effect on what we make,” he tells Colossal. “Blown glass and thrown pots are round; houses and furniture are rectangular. I spend a good portion of my time experimenting with process to try and use a new way of making to create new families of objects and forms.” The resulting sculptures capture a playful tension between fragility and strength, ephemerality and durability.

Using glass panes or sheets from salvaged windows, Szösz carefully plans the shape of the final form and cuts numerous pieces that are measured to slightly overlap so that when fused together, they create tight seams. Ceramic fiber paper separates the layers to prevent the material from sticking to both the kiln and itself. At 1,600 degrees Fahrenheit, the piece is swiftly removed from the kiln and inflated, balloon-like with compressed air. The glass is malleable for only about a minute at most before it cools to a hard object. “There is very little shaping that can be done during the inflation, so the process relies entirely on the preparation of the material,” Szösz explains. “Once you pull it out to inflate it, what you get is what you get.”

Szösz’s work with sheet glass take numerous forms, and his sculptures are currently on view in two exhibitions at BWA Wrócław Galleries of Contemporary Art, including a solo show titled Gold Standard, and the group exhibition Autonomous Zones, a collaboration with Pilchuck Glass School. You can follow more of the artist’s work on Instagram and his website.

 

Art

Bulbous Inflatable Installations by Steve Messam Interact with Historic Architecture and Landscapes

U.K.-based artist Steve Messam is known for his artistic interventions in the landscape, reinterpreting historical monuments, buildings, or rural areas with bold, ephemeral installations. Often inflated, his works reimagine or disrupt perceptions of our surroundings and impact how people move around and through them. Bright colors and striking forms that jut from colonnades, facades, and river banks prompt viewers to consider their relationships to the built environment.

As part of BlowUp Art Den Haag, a three-week outdoor exhibition featuring large-scale, temporary, inflatable artworks throughout The Hague, the artist has unveiled new work marking two notable locations. For one, a bronze statue of William I, or Willem de Oranje, who founded the Netherlands as an independent nation, a tube of green spikes playfully encircles the monument, transforming the atmosphere of the main square it overlooks.

You can find more work on Messam’s website and Instagram.

 

Art Science

An Enormous ‘E.coli’ Floats Through the National Museum of Scotland at 5 Million Times Its Actual Size

In the National Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh, an enormous single-cell organism floats among the Victorian iron colonnades of the cavernous Grand Gallery. Bristol-based multidisciplinary artist Luke Jerram often explores the nature of scale and perception in his pieces (previously), and the latest installation of his inflatable sculpture “E.coli,” which has been displayed in locations around the U.K., spans 90 feet, representing the bacterium at 5 million times its actual size. (If humans were to scale up just as enormously, they would be about 5.5 miles tall!)

Escherichia coli (known as E.coli) is a group of mostly beneficial bacteria that live in the intestines of animals and humans. Some types can occasionally cause severe illness, usually transmitted on food. Jerram’s sculpture prompts visitors to re-examine their relationship with “germs,” elevating and celebrating the importance of bacteria for both health and science.

“E.coli” is on view as part of Edinburgh Art Festival through August 31. You can find more of Jerram’s work on his website.

 

Art

Illuminated Inflatable Sculptures Populate Whimsical Wonderlands by ENESS

Giant striped characters, the world’s first inflatable fountain, and a mass of towering arches occupy the otherworldly installations designed by ENESS. The Melbourne-based studio creates immersive worlds of whimsical creatures and puffy, illuminated structures that spring from the ground. Often paired with upbeat soundscapes and interactive elements like squirting water and digital eyeballs, the air-filled sculptures are arranged as wonderlands of light and color that at night, bathe the viewer in a kaleidoscopic glow of LED bulbs.

ENESS’s “Cupid’s Koi Garden” (shown below) is on view from April 12 to August 21 alongside 14 artists as part of Pop Air, a collaborative exhibition between La Villette and Balloon Museum, that occupies more than 5,000-square-meters of the Grande Halle in Paris. Follow where the studio’s radiant inflatables are traveling next on Instagram.

 

Art

Pink Inflatable Tubes and Spheres Form Immersive Pyramid Installations by Cyril Lancelin

French artist Cyril Lancelin recently designed two inflatable structures for the Made in America Festival in Philadelphia. Constructed out of nylon fabric, the installations feature repeated geometric shapes that expand to form giant pink pyramids.

Guests enter Pyramid Sphere through a tunnel that is intersected by round holes on left and right faces of the pyramid. The windows let in additional light and also allow those inside to peer out to the rest of the world. Pyramid Tube has no clear entrance or exit. Visitors are expected to navigate the spaces between where the tubes meet and where the structure meets the ground.

To create the massive inflatable forms, Lancelin used parametric modeling software. From corner to corner and from base to tip, the fully inflated Pyramid Tube and Pyramid Sphere structures are just shy of 33 and 40 feet, respectively. The artist explains that during the manufacturing process, designs are adjusted to fit the technical data and to account for factors such as air resistance, structure resistance, and budget. 3D software is used to create a flat template, which each piece fitting together like a puzzle.

“When I design an immersive installation, I like the visitor to be totally in the sculpture,” Lancelin told Colossal. “I found that inflatables were a good way to make monumental installations, but also using as [little] material as possible, and being very light for shipping.”

To see more of Cyril Lancelin’s brightly colored inflatables as well as his steel sculptures, follow the artist on Instagram.