86 - Inflation and Deflation

I've been digging back into the archives around the balloon sculptures and I'm feeling overwhelmed. It's a weird mixture of excitement and sadness. There was a point at the turn of the Century, when I gave up my studio and began to work in a corporate office in the City of London. I feel sad about that. All that energy and verve just fizzled out. I felt deflated in the studio, I completely lost motivation and suddenly had no idea why I was doing any of it. 

On the flip side, I presently feel a lot of excitement about the work. I feel so connected and inspired. It's as though a thumping art heart has been slammed back into my chest and woken up numb art parts but without the painful tingling you get when you fell asleep on your arm.

This is where I left [balloon] things in 2000 (aside from the 3D stereographic images already mentioned, and the sketches yet to mention). 

Photographic experiments

Flash photography and distorted close-ups.

Story

I created a 'Doggy Fashion Dame' in white balloons and created a story setting suggestive of a Disney fairy tale princess. It was always about seeing the ludicrous in the feminine tropes.

Male

Sketch idea for photographing a naked male model enveloped by a balloon entity. I like this one.

Diversion

This was an installation at Cabot Circus, a shopping centre near Canary Wharf in London.

I think it strayed too far from my concept of cartoon figures and started to look like a virus. I wanted to make more joyful things. So I wasn't comfortable with this one. Also it's quite weird with the rope barriers imposed on it, which I hadn't expected.