source: biginjapancomau

The prolific artist/designer/researcher Yasuhiro Suzuki’s recent works have included a boat resembling a zipper tab and a bowl made in the image of a cabbage. Having presented new projects at Tokyo Design Tide and Axis Gallery earlier this month, he stopped off in Australia as our guest to install his subtle kinetic work Aerial Beings at the Big In Japan events in Sydney and Melbourne.

Freed from gravity’s pull, these transparent human-shaped helium-filled PVC balloons drifted through space of their own accord, making visible the constant movements of air that usually go unseen. Each one assembled by hand with over 100 pattern templates seamlessly pieced together, the lighter-than-air sculptures were first shown last year as part of an art program themed around air at Haneda Airport.

Like his dynamic breathing mannequins made of monofilament fibre, the Aerial Beings are part of Yasuhiro’s ongoing exploration of air, new materials, the human form and the ambiguous boundaries between animate and inanimate. Optional further reading: For some thoughtful thoughts on air go here and for a most excellent history of balloons in art there is an article at the most excellent Cabinet Magazine.