Garbage bag animals
I heard this story on the radio, and had to go online to see the actual animals.
See a video of the Air Bear here (it's a 4 minute video, but the bear inflates 40 seconds into it; I have to agree that it looks a lot more like a white dog):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L-a607j2dOo
NYC art student uses subway updraft to inflate plastic animals
NEW YORK — An art student whose whimsical plastic animals inflate over sidewalk subway grates is drawing more attention to the lowly air vents than they've seen since Marilyn Monroe's skirt flew skyward in "The Seven Year Itch."
The animals, made of garbage or shopping bags, lie crumpled up over the grates until an updraft from a passing underground train fills them with air.
"When I saw a piece of construction tape flying off this grate one day I got interested in what that wind could do," said the artist, Joshua Allen Harris, who is studying fine art at the School of Visual Arts.
Harris, 31, spent weeks developing his first animal, a polar bear made of white plastic bags. The bear became an Internet hit once an arts group posted a video of it inflating.
On Tuesday, Harris brought his second creation, a two-metre giraffe, to his usual installation spot near the art school in the Chelsea neighbourhood. He taped the giraffe's feet to the metal grates and waited.
At rest, the animal looked like the grey trash bags of which it was made. But it rose on wobbly legs as a train passed under the air vent, resembling a real giraffe foal taking its first steps.
The animal's head bobbed in the breeze. Then the train left, and the giraffe was a heap of plastic again.
"The animation part is out of my control," Harris said. "I set this thing up, and then the subway completes it."
Subway grates are a regular feature of the city landscape made famous by Monroe's billowing white dress in the 1955 film "The Seven Year Itch," directed by Billy Wilder.
Mairo Notton, an interior design student who stopped to watch the giraffe inflate, said most people don't like the sidewalk grates because they worry about dropping something into them.
"To use it like this makes it positive," he said. "It changes the street picture."
Harris said seeing the reactions of passersby has been the best part of the project.
"You walk down the streets, and all (of a) sudden trash jumps to life," he said. "It's not what you usually see."
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L-a607j2dOo
NYC art student uses subway updraft to inflate plastic animalsNEW YORK — An art student whose whimsical plastic animals inflate over sidewalk subway grates is drawing more attention to the lowly air vents than they've seen since Marilyn Monroe's skirt flew skyward in "The Seven Year Itch."
The animals, made of garbage or shopping bags, lie crumpled up over the grates until an updraft from a passing underground train fills them with air.
"When I saw a piece of construction tape flying off this grate one day I got interested in what that wind could do," said the artist, Joshua Allen Harris, who is studying fine art at the School of Visual Arts.
Harris, 31, spent weeks developing his first animal, a polar bear made of white plastic bags. The bear became an Internet hit once an arts group posted a video of it inflating.
On Tuesday, Harris brought his second creation, a two-metre giraffe, to his usual installation spot near the art school in the Chelsea neighbourhood. He taped the giraffe's feet to the metal grates and waited.
At rest, the animal looked like the grey trash bags of which it was made. But it rose on wobbly legs as a train passed under the air vent, resembling a real giraffe foal taking its first steps.
The animal's head bobbed in the breeze. Then the train left, and the giraffe was a heap of plastic again.
"The animation part is out of my control," Harris said. "I set this thing up, and then the subway completes it."
Subway grates are a regular feature of the city landscape made famous by Monroe's billowing white dress in the 1955 film "The Seven Year Itch," directed by Billy Wilder.
Mairo Notton, an interior design student who stopped to watch the giraffe inflate, said most people don't like the sidewalk grates because they worry about dropping something into them.
"To use it like this makes it positive," he said. "It changes the street picture."
Harris said seeing the reactions of passersby has been the best part of the project.
"You walk down the streets, and all (of a) sudden trash jumps to life," he said. "It's not what you usually see."
Labels: society
posted by Danielle @ 9:45 PM
1 Comments:
This is so fun! For a video of the giraffe, check out this site (ignore the short ad before it starts).
http://cbs4denver.com/video/?id=40620@kcnc.dayport.com
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