Balloons and the Art World by guest blogger John Bowler

John Bowler, founder and chief executive of BAPIA*, shares his experience working with artists working with balloons. 

The Arrival by Jason Hackenwerth 

"It appears that as times goes by, more and more artists are turning to balloons as a medium for their art projects. We have seen artist, Jason Hackenwerth travelling the world with his amazing balloon creations including this awesome piece, 'The Arrival,' built in 2014 for the Louisiana Art and Science Museum. I was very fortunate to meet up with Jason when he was commissioned by Selfridges Department Store in London in 2011 for an 'Under the Sea' project, which was part of a huge campaign to create public awareness regarding the ocean, over-fishing, and protecting the sea . On this project, Jason used 35,000 Qualatex^® biodegradable balloons and created eleven sculptures that reflected sea-life.

Balloon Art by Jason Hackenwerth 

Only last year Charles Petillon, a photographer from France, was commissioned to install a giant cloud of balloons under the roof of the 19th Century Market Building in London's Covent Garden. Known as 'Heartbeat,' this sculpture used a massive 100,000 white Qualatex balloons, stretching 54 meters in length and 12 meters wide, with pulsating lights to symbolise the beating of a heart. Once again, I had the fortune of meeting this artist along with a group of BAPIA members who assisted with the inflation, installation, and de-rigging of this incredible piece that lasted for a number of weeks.

Charles Petillon, 'Heartbeat.'

The latest project that I found myself getting involved with was only a few weeks ago by Artist Noemi Lakmaier, with a live art installation named 'Cherophobia'. 
Cherophobia was a 48-hour durational living installation. An attempt to lift the artist's bound and immobilised body off the ground using 20,000 helium party balloons. This all took place inside St. Leonard's Church in Shoreditch, London."

Cherophobia is defined as a work of contrasts and opposites, of the push and pull between fear and desire, freedom and constraint, and about our responsibility to make choices. The cheerful, happy image of a giant cloud of balloons stands in stark contrast to the artist's bound, restricted, and immobilised body, while the helium-filled balloons pulling upwards are in turn constrained by the church building. 

"Noemi and her team called upon BAPIA members to assist with the Hi-Float^® treatment and inflation of the balloons. It was determined by the artist's team that it would require approximately 12,000 11" Qualatex balloons to lift her. With six BAPIA professionals and changing teams of volunteers, it was felt that this should be achievable in 12 hours. However, due to some unforeseen issues with Noemi's health and wellbeing, the lift-off was delayed until the following day when, with the use of approximately 13,500 11" balloons, Noemi started to float underneath what can only be described as a 'mountain' of balloon. The contrast of the multi-coloured balloons mountain against the church decor was striking and certainly not what you might to expect to find in a church!"

"Noemi took off at about 3pm and was airbourne for about 5 hours."

The start of the balloons being installed.

13,500 11" Qualatex Balloons and the project is a success!

It is very interesting to see how a balloon art installation such as Charles Petillon's  'Heartbeat' has created a trend within the balloon community. I have seen a number of photographs of similar installations around the world that have a very similar look and have obviously been inspired by the original design.

I believe that seeing balloons being used in such diverse and interesting ways can only be a good thing, as it brings balloons in a bright and positive way to the public.

Thank you to John for sharing his Balloon Art experiences with the Very Best Balloon Blog.

Happy Ballooning

Sue

www.suebowler.com

BAPIA — the Balloon and Party Industry Alliance is a U.K.- based independent trade organisation that works much like a trade association. BAPIA's aims are to increase public awareness of the balloon and party industry, promote industry professionals and the benefits of working with them, fight negative and anti-balloon campaigns, and much more! 

What is balloon art?

Cove - created by Jason Hackenwerth

What is balloon art?

I have been a balloon artist for over 20 years, but I suppose it is not until now that I have really considered what ‘balloon art’ actually means?

I am a skilled balloon artist who can create decor for events. I have the creativity to design my own work and am always excited when I complete something new, but I question, can I call my work art?

Stone Chang  a balloon artist from Taiwan, recently held an exhibition in Taiwan called ‘The Art of Rapid Expansion’. The exhibition featured work created by him and a team of balloon artists from around Taiwan. As part of the exhibition, Stone also featured 11 International balloon artists using large posters to display examples of their work and their points of view of balloon art, reading each artists words and descriptions as to what balloon art means to them was truly uplifting, and I would like to share a few of their sentiments with you.

 

“As balloon artists we are able to literally breath life into creations that then go into the world spreading beauty, and wonder, and joy, and connecting us all”. Don Caldwell aka Buster Balloon, USA

www.busterballoon.com

“Once inflated, they capture the heart of every young mind, in a child as well as an adult”. Luc Bertrand, Belgium.

www.wawballoons.be

“ If you can see it in your mind, you can make it with balloons. Air is the canvas, balloons are the paint, your hands are the brush that paints the picture”. Marvin Hardy, USA

“Balloons are amazing product for doing art, they have a special power for people, magical, simple, people like it”! Niko Fric, Slovenia

www.nikoballoonfashion.com

Stone himself says: “ Balloon, a piece of childhood memory. Creatively twisted, readily inflated into a delightful splurge. So let’s grab the chance to enjoy this volatile handicraft of peasants, a swiftly ballooned art”.



Recently, I met an artist called Jason Hackenwerth. Jason studied art and was awarded a BFA  at Webster University. St. Louis, MO. USA. Jason works with balloons (only the very best balloons) as his art medium, to create his grand sculptures such as the ‘Megamite’  or ‘Cove’, which he recently installed at Selfridges department store London, as part of a campaign to support an environmental project named Project Ocean.
Jason has been commissioned to create sculptures at numerous exhibitions, features in many publications and has a string of awards to his name.
It is strange how we ‘find’ balloons in our lives, Jason told me that his mother was a clown, and that as a young boy he was very embarrassed by this (funnily enough so were my own children and although not a clown, this is how some of their friends perceived me as I was a mummy who ‘played’ with balloons). Jason overcame his embarrassment and learn't the art of twisting from his Mom and used the tips that he earned to help fund his way through college and now, the rest is history as Jason has proved himself as a highly talented artist, who’s art form is very much in demand Worldwide.

This brings me back to my original question "can I call my work art"? Looking at the definition of the word art, I do not think that I can, my designs are 'arty' and creative, but like a graphic designer, cake decorator and many other artistic trade, maybe not a work of art. There are so many fantastic artists in our industry, the entertainers who use balloons within their acts, the extremely talented artists who can make stunning balloon dresses, with incredible style and precision, the artists who can create sculptures on a grand scale working with 1000's of balloons and the twisters who can turn one balloon into a masterpiece. I am in awe of the art and creativity that can be made from the humble balloon.

Thinking green Qualatex balloons are Biodegradable!

I found this Qualatex poster on Sky High Balloons, BC, Canada's blog page (thank you guys)  and thought what a great message to promote on our websites, blogs and Facebook pages! When I recently met artist Jason Hackenwerth in London early this year, he told me that it was very important to him as an environmentalist that he only works with Qualatex latex balloons because they are 100% natural & 100% biodegradable! Jason was recently commissioned by Selfridges, London to create amazing balloon sculptures as part of the Project Ocean , it was a huge factor that Jason worked with a product that was 100% natural.