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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.

Art

An Immersive Inflatable Labyrinth of Light and Color by Architects of Air

Designer and Architects of Air founder Alan Parkinson’s latest architecture maze, Daedalum, is a 153-foot long inflatable structure, recently installed in London as a part of the Greenwich + Docklands International Festival. Light fills the labyrinth’s tunnels through colored panels made of translucent material, bathing the interior in bright and ethereal hues.

Parkinson’s maze is comprised of 19 interconnected egg-shaped domes. Named for the father of Icarus and the designer of the minotaur’s labyrinth from Greek Mythology, Daedalum is one of several traveling luminaria created and installed in over 40 countries since 1992. A highlight of the network of color-soaked roams is the ceiling of its Main Dome, which features a 600-piece pattern inspired by Rome’s Pantheon.

“I design the structures to create a particular encounter with the phenomenon of light,” Parkinson told Dezeen. “I devise an architecture to encourage a sense of wonder.” On his use of inflatables as a medium, the designer said that it is “transient and aspires to be utopian in a way that permanent architecture, with its feet on the ground is often not allowed to be.” He added that as designers he and his team still have to “engage with the parameters that actual architecture engages with–wind-loading, drainage, temperature control and wheelchair accessibility.” (via Dezeen)

Art

A Towering Multi-Chromatic Tapestry of Giant Inflated Tubes Unveiled by Pneuhaus

Pneuhaus (previously) builds inflatable structures and environments that give their audience a new perspective of the world around them. Recently, the Rhode Island-based design collective honored Providence’s history of textile manufacturing with a piece titled Pnit. The large-scale piece is illuminated by LED lights, and presents a macro exploration of a knitted form. Inflatable tubes cycle and out of each other along the wall of a concrete parking garage as they slowly rotate through different shades of yellows, greens, purples, and pinks.

“In our practice we push the boundaries of textile-based construction and so the image of the knitting swatch is also an ode to our love of fabrics, flexibility, and the strength of soft things,” Pneuhaus tells Colossal. “Pnit demonstrates these same qualities of textiles through its calligraphic curves and its weather ready durability.”

The installation was created for Providence’s art festival PVDFest, and will continuously introduce new color patterns throughout its five-month run. You can see a video of the color-changing tapestry in the video below, and view more work by Pneuhaus, such as their 2018 geodesic pinhole camera, on their website and Instagram.

Design

Performative Rubber Garments by Fredrik Tjærandsen Deflate into Fashionable Skirts and Dresses on the Runway

This week, you’ve most likely seen larger-than-life balloon garments deflating across your Instagram feed. Despite watching time and time again, I don’t seem to get bored with observing the models effortlessly emerge from the top shortly before yanking the rubber object down around their shoulders or waist. The inflated clothing items were designed by Fredrik Tjærandsen, a Norwegian designer who recently won the L’Oreal Professionel Young Talent Award for his 2019 BFA fashion presentation at Central Saint Martins in London. Not only are the dresses performative, they are also rewearable. After the bubble has gone flat, it can either be reinflated or simply worn as a deflated dress.

Initially Tjærandsen wanted to study sculpture during his BFA. His pieces, which he refers to as “bubbles,” reflect this initial interest in sculpture, and additionally have a conceptually tie to his childhood. “I was inspired by my own early childhood memories. I wanted to recreate the fogginess and the ‘mist’ of the memories themselves,” Tjærandsen told Vogue. “The inflated bubbles are about being able to wear an unclear memory. When the bubble emerges onto the catwalk, it’s the dream. The deflation of the bubble visualizes the moment when we realize we have a consciousness.”

You can take a peek at more of Tjærandsen’s rubbery designs on Instagram.

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A post shared by FREDRIK TJÆRANDSEN (@fredriktjaerandsen) on Jun 2, 2019 at 11:06am PDT

 

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Design

Air-Mountain: A Translucent Inflatable Structure Blurs the Boundary Between Interior and Exterior Spaces

Visitors to this year’s OCT Phoenix Flower Festival in Shenzhen, China encountered an unusual inflatable pavilion by Aether Architects. The translucent structure, called “air-mountain,” served dual functions as a protective exhibition space and a surface for people to climb up and over. Inflated hemispheres with a range of dimensions and textures were grouped together via a ribbed topography, and included air holes to allow visitors (and plants) room to breathe.

Aether was founded by architect Zelin Huang, who also has a background in fine art. His studio focuses “on the spatial creation of a connection between phenomenology and architecture, try to create a building that is not isolated from nature, but between man-made and natural, connecting man-made with nature.” (via designboom)