Inflatable art guide

There’s something inherently playful about balloons and artwork made in that tradition, if you can blow it up then it seems immediately approachable and innocent. Artist’s intentions aren’t always benign though when they display their ironic side.

For instance the two rabbits at right are part of an exhibition called Somehow I Don’t Feel Comfortable and are described by their creator Momoyo Torimitsu as representing ‘the cramped feeling of a person who can no longer distinguish mental and physical freedom’.

The size also creates a bizarre sentiment; oppressive and even monstrous. So not as cute as they look! While we are used to large inflatable objects from bouncing castles to beach toys and boats to airships and passengerbearing balloons, there has been a long tradition of inflatables both in art and architecture.

There are examples of inflatable domes used for sporting events, blow up movie screens for drive-in theatres, military quick assembly tents and even an experimental inflatable plane built (in 1956) by Goodyear the tyre company better known recently for their company blimp. Since the latex balloon’s invention by Michael Faraday in 1824 the uses have run from meteorology to medicine to whimsical decorations and beyond to the art world which likes nothing better than large public displays.

Jeff Koons’s ‘inflatable’ works have been displayed in many prominent places including New York’s Rockefeller Center where he inflated his 45-foot-high Seated Ballerina which was scaled up from the artist’s original ‘antiquity’ series version in steel at around seven foot high.

In addition to recognised artists there are ‘inflatable artists for hire’ in the form of UK-based Designs In Air which creates and manufactures inflatable sculptures for events and exhibitions and to order. The business grew out of designer Pete Hamilton’s ‘happy accident with a hair dryer and a scrap of hot air balloon cloth in 1994. Check out his lobster overleaf.