A Playful Art Installation By Tadao Cern
- Words
- Monika Mróz
To artist Tadao Cern, the creative process is like playing – everything he creates comes out of curiosity. This is exactly how the idea for the installation ‘Black Balloons’ was born – having found a moment between other projects, Cern bought two balloons and started to experiment and play with them.
“That opposition created by two very simple and playful objects brought a true childish experience of discovery back to my life.” The balloons were filled with light and heavy gases – sulfur hexafluoride and helium. Cern experimented with different arrangements of the balloons, but the common concept was for them to float in space, opposed to each other. In further studies, the artist also came up with an idea of how to make those balloons float in the middle of a glass tank without connecting them to anything.
The result surprised him even more than he expected. “That opposition created by two very simple and playful objects brought a true child-like experience of discovery back to my life,” says Cern. The effect was so magical that he decided to develop it into a bigger project. He is now working on the sculptures made of hundreds of balloons that will hopefully be showcased live soon. Describing the complexity of such an exhibition, Cern says: “These sculptures interact with the viewer in so many ways – you can only imagine how a sculpture made out of 400 balloons reacts to a wind that people created just by walking by.” Looking at this plain yet truly impressive concept, we can’t help saying that the simplest ideas are always the brightest ones.
All images © courtesy of Tadao Cern
