- Ephemerality and Fragility
Balloons are easily broken, so they are often used to symbolize the brevity of life, the passage of time, and fragility. This “transience” of the material suggests the fleeting nature of existence, sometimes also connecting to themes of death or disappearance. - Expansion and Pressure
The process of inflating a balloon can metaphorically represent personal or societal pressure. In some works, balloons are inflated to their limits or even to the point of bursting, symbolizing collapse or eruption under pressure. This can express personal anxiety and serve as a metaphor for social oppression. - Innocence and Irony
Balloons are often associated with childhood and celebrations, representing innocence, but they can also convey irony in artworks. - Symbols of Hope and Freedom
The upward movement of balloons can represent hope, freedom, the elevation of dreams, and the escape from the constraints of reality. - Interactivity
The tactile and easily manipulated qualities of balloons make them widely used in interactive art, where viewers can engage with them by touching, pressing, or hitting, fostering interaction. - Transformation and Loss of Control
Balloons can be squeezed and deformed, yet once released, they either return to their original shape or burst. In installations or performance art, this trait can express the dynamics of control and loss of control, as well as reflections on transformation and stability.
The artists who make art with balloons
“Black Balloons”
Tadao Cern presents a grid-like structure with 400 black balloons suspended within it. The contrast between the concrete-like blackness of the balloons and their ethereal quality adds depth to the visual narrative of the installation.
These balloons are filled with two types of gases: helium, which is lighter than air, and sulfur hexafluoride, which is heavier than air. This unique combination allows the balloons to maintain a delicate equilibrium as they float within the installation. The essence of “Black Balloons” lies in exploring the duality of life – the lightness and heaviness, attraction and repulsion, corporeality, and materiality that define the human experience.
‘I still look like a child, the only difference is that my balloon is bigger and it’s black!’ Tadao cern creates the Black Balloon installation from the perspective of a simple yet playful child.
In the early stages of the Black Balloon series, in which black balloons were placed in the exterior space of the New Museum of Art in New York, Tadao Cern contemplated the relationship between architecture, space, and place, and explored the possibilities of architectural ‘dynamic form’.
I really appreciate the sense of order, balance, and opposition in this piece, as well as the consideration of the relationships between space, setting, and installation. The contrast between black and white in the exhibition space is also simple yet aesthetically pleasing. To be honest, I hadn’t seen this work before thinking about my own installation. My choice of using balloons as a medium coincidentally aligns with theirs. Through research, I discovered that balloons are commonly used in art installations. However, unlike them, I want to incorporate sound as an element. The inflation, deflation, and explosion of balloons will create different spaces and environments for sound, and these changes can alter the volume and reflection of the sound. When helium is injected, it changes the frequency of the sound due to its unique chemical properties. I once saw a social media video where someone inhaled helium, and their voice became higher-pitched. This made me wonder if I could place a speaker in a helium-filled environment and whether this would change the sound emitted by the speaker. With this question in mind, I began my subsequent experiments.
Martin Creed: Half the air in a given space
This installation gives me a sense of desire and pressure. The 37,000 identical balloons seem to symbolize a multitude of desires and goals, nearly filling the space entirely. As people walk in, sinking into a sea of balloons, they initially feel a sense of satisfaction and joy (after all, who didn’t love playing with balloons as a child, right? :)). However, they soon find themselves overwhelmed by the endless balloons, feeling the pressure of their personal space being squeezed. The tens of thousands of balloons in a single color almost personify anxiety and stress, surging forth with nowhere to stand.
‘Vital Capacity’ by William Lamson
Performances use the fragility of balloons to explore human respiration and environmental vulnerability. Very interesting.
Edges yasuaki onishi
2017
The events and relationships that take place in ‘The Distance Between Presence and Absence’ hint at the state of the world and society today. Yasuaki Onishi sees this work as an opportunity to look at these events and relationships from a different perspective while examining our own perceptions. ‘Starting with the familiar or the incomprehensible, I am interested in the process by which my mind enters a system that is beyond our reach,’ he says. ‘The exhibition room in a museum with plates, bags and food is itself a large container. Something should be used to fill an empty container, and the seeds will be passed on to the next generation as food for life.’