Spring 2022
Arthur Analts, a london-based artist and designer, made a series of moving and inflatable sculptures using balloons in a constrained frame. I find the idea of inflating in a confined space very interesting. The tension between expansion and constraints create compelling effects.
‘The oppressed’ was created in response to black lives matter: the ongoing struggle of the international civil rights movement.
Below are a few more pieces in the same series of works.
I First started with just two colors and cut into small pieces of irregular shapes. I was curious to see the effect of connecting irregular shapes together.
But I soon realized that it is very difficult to connect and tape irregular shapes together, and in order to close it, I added a piece of red plastic to it. This piece turned out to be more “regular” than I expected. I also ran out of the given tape during the first piece, so I used packaging tape for the rest of the assignment.
For this second piece, I cut the plastic into much larger pieces, and also cut strips to connect the larger ones. I wanted to explore the overall shape so my goal was to make a letter “C”, but not the perfect “C”.
I really like how this turned out to be, and how the corners affect the overall shape after inflation. I also find it interesting that there is a repeatable directional change when inflated/deflated.
For this last one, I wanted to create a irregular 3D shape. Learned from the first inflated piece, I cut the plastic bags into larger pieces instead of smaller pieces. This time if was lot more successful and I specifically really enjoyed the final breathing effect.
The biggest overall challenge that I had was the air leaking. I tried to use an air-pump to inflate my closed-up pieces, but because I have so many leakages, the small air-pump that I had was not pumping fast enough.
Another challenge that I encountered was the packing tape being too rigid. As a result, the parts that had too much tapes weren’t inflating as well.