Notes on the Appearance of Balloon Animals

To the close observer of contemporary architectural practice it is already apparent that balloon animals have arrived on the scene. What are balloon animals doing here, in architecture? This essay will argue that what balloon animals do is construct inanimate subjects. Although made of inert matter, they defy certain distinctions between animate viewing subject and inanimate viewed object so that they tend to join their audience instead of being observed by it. This construction of the inanimate subject is made possible by the use of formal tropes cataloged by Michael Fried in his seminal 1967 essay “Art and Objecthood.” Whereas in Fried’s essay these tropes were derided as hallmarks of inferior, theatrical art, recent balloon animal projects in architecture invert Fried’s value system to embrace the work he excoriated. And they go a bit further, exaggerating the effects that were only marginally apparent in the art contemporaneous to the essay.

Volume Editors
David Ruy & Lola Sheppard

ISBN
978-0-935502-95-4