It’s winter break and the indoor bounce house kids’ zones are packed. This post is a round up of bouncy houses made by contemporary artists. The kind of public art or art exhibition my kids and I would be equally excited about.
Sacrilege by Jeremy Deller (on Vimeo) is playing with the role of sacred space in culture, in this case Stonehenge. The young and old are knocking over stones that heritage, mystery, and magic has normally made off limits.
A nod to (or rip off of) James Turrell’s Skyspace…just more fun.
I’m including two artworks by Alex Schweder. They both take the speed right out of the bounce house. In “Wall to Wall Floor to Ceiling,” a 3d puzzle of forms are stuffed into the Tel Aviv Museum of Art. They are made of fur, vinyl, and air. As you plop into the “engorging and disgorging forms,” the air slowly transfers.
In a second inflatable istallation by Schweder, the intertwined forms have both clear and photosensitive surfaces. After lingering in the light, the lights go out and your outlines are visible.
The string grid inside the “String Vienna” inflatable creates order and restrictions. It completely defeats the flip and the flop.
The press release for Jamming Bodies, a recent exhibition at Storefront for Art and Architecture reads, “This prototype, a mix between a playground and a laboratory test room, explodes inherited ideas within many industries and disciplines, putting morphable space and the body at the center of conversations about the future of science, technology, health, and fitness, as well as in the conceptual and material definitions of our everyday spaces of inhabitation.” Please, make my bouncing or lounging on your materials that profound.
Christine Sun Kim‘s is letting us bounce in an immaterial inflatable. She describes a sound track that fills the room with very low frequency sounds. You can feel, dance, or bounce to the beats, but you cannot hear them.
I want to be up there with you clumsily flopping around trying not to break and ankle. Tomas Saraceno is playing with physics, but I am just as excited about how it transforms our everyday perspective. The materials slows you down and the placement distorts the architecture, spectators, and participants.
Every art history party needs what every birthday party always has… a bouncy castle! Next, there are only a few more architectural movements to cover.
Tom Dale‘s leatherette bouncy castle mocks the authority and privilege of Parliament, while also negating the inclusive pleasure that many remember from childhood. No one is allowed to bounce, but I’m sure a few have anyway.
It’s at Burning Man. It should probably be in our city park too. As you climb up your own mountain, you are aware of the shifting air caused by others. It draws out the relationship between individuals sharing the same space.
Luminaria is actually made by a collective that only makes inflatables. They want to “to generate a sense of wonder at the beauty of light and colour.” I wonder how they define wonder. What I like best about their idea is that they are temporary public places that people want to linger in. And I feel like you could get lost.
After searching for these gems, I’m curious why a museum has not made art exhibition of bouncy castles that opens when school is out! The tag line can be “Make Meaning by Bouncing.” It sounds awfully hopeful, but I kind of believe it. Negotiating shared space with people in your community (aka strangers)… Flipping and flopping around an artist’s controversial or romantic reflections on life… Teaching my kids the difference between Gothic and Roman arches… Or simply not being bored in an art museum. Below are a few artists I would like to see make a bouncy house for our next block party!
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