No too long ago, an innocent looking driveway right in the middle of Silver Lake Blvd. sprouted an art installation. A larger than life golden orange cornocopia web occupied the space of an otherwise sparse modern design firm. Each weekend on my stroll to the dog park I watched the progress. And then I watched them disassemble it - weaving out the strands as carefully as they had gone in. I knew something was up about a month ago when the large gates outside got a facelift and the grounds directly inside started to be groomed for an environmental canvas once more. An new installation was on the horizon for sure. Last night it took me by surprise. After a delicious meal at Leela Thai, we walked into the open gates to touch the giant air sacs and tubes. These baloons are giant glowing urban jellyfish.

The hip hip architecture and landscape firm Materials&Applications(M&A) bring you Bubbles: an Open-Air Interactive Installation by FOXlin and NONDesigns. I like these guys. They support green roof gardens and give us something to play with after a Thai dinner or Spaceland jaunt. The bubbles are actually connected inflated parachutes, gently weighted and held with a constant stream of air through a highway of large flexible tubes. The baloons react to the people who enter the space. If you touch one, it starts to deflate, slowly inflating another one. When no one is near the air sacs they counteract each other and remain the same size. The idea is to create a spatially adaptable pneumatic environment at an urban scale reaching equilibirum at a state of rest. M&A claims there are sensors that know when one is touching the air sacs. But after playing and poking them, the pattern feels more random. Sensors or not, it's lit so prettily, you can't help it but stop to investigate on a warm autumn night.

1619 Silver Lake Blvd.
Silver Lake, 90026

Labels: art, reviews