A Day in Billingsgate: BALLOONS
Searching for the traffic light tree sculpture in Billingsgate east London, I passed by a warehouse building, its vast windows smothered top to bottom in yellow balloons…
Traffic Light Tree, 1998, Pierre Vivant, Trafalgar Way, Billingsgate, London. Photo copyright Rosalind Ormiston January 2023.
My first reaction was to view the floor-to-ceiling balloons installation as a decorative burglar proof device. Such a good deterrent, to stop the curious from breaking into an empty building. Have you ever tried pushing your way through a room of balloons? I have. It is not easy. After visiting Pierre Vivant’s Traffic Light Tree, 1998, installed on a roundabout near Billingsgate market (see photos, and text below**). I made a note to check out what the balloon building might be. Was it an art installation?
It's a balloon museum. Of course it is. The website explains it – and apologies if I am the last person to know this –
‘ EmotionAir is a unique exhibition that explores the profound relationship between art and emotions through the captivating medium of inflatable art. The Balloon Museum presents this new art project in the historic space of Old Billingsgate. EmotionAir offers a multisensory exposition path that balances the lightness of inflatable works with the complexity of human emotions.’
Text © home - Balloon Museum
Reading this reminded me of a room of balloons, at the Hayward Gallery, Southbank, London, ten years ago this month in January 2014. The English artist, composer, and performer Martin Creed held a retrospective – his work over 30-years - called What’s the Point of It?. It had included Work No. 127, ‘The Lights Going On and Off’ (2000), with which he won Tate’s Turner Prize in 2001. I liked it then at Tate. It made me laugh. It made me want to know more about Martin Creed. Walking through the Hayward gallery art spaces, the show opened with a vast rotating steel beam swinging overhead, producing an involuntary need to duck, and from that moment visitors knew that the show was going to be out of the ordinary.
Creed’s balloon room was no exception. Half the Air in a given Space, is an interactive installation in a glass-walled space filled with blown-up balloons (these were white). The title refers to half the air in the given space being inside the hundreds of balloons. Enter in to find the balloons jostling with bodies for space, balloons sticking to clothes and hair, close enough to question, not ‘what’s the point of it?’ but ‘why did I come in here?’ The exit can be seen but the balloons don’t want you to leave. They gently enclose you. Slight panic mixed with peals of laughter from fellow-balloon-room-goers, made it the most memorable interactive experience within an artwork, for me. I, like many other people, just had to try it again. Being squashed by balloons all around and overhead was unique.
Will the Balloon Museum give such a thrill? I’ll have to see.
Ten years ago I wrote a review of the Martin Creed retrospective for Cassone, the online magazine. Here it is. It has brought back memories of an amazing artist, and an exceptional show, full of wit and inspiration. Oddly, I didn’t mention the balloons.
What’s the point of Martin Creed? :: March 2014 :: Cassone (cassone-art.com)
Here is Martin Creed’s website if you want to take a look at his incredible art. martincreed.com
** Traffic Light Tree, is interesting. It was created in 1998 by French sculptor Pierre Vivant, as part of London’s public sculpture programme for the London Docklands Development Corporation. It was placed on a roundabout near Canary Wharf, replacing a sick plane tree that had suffered from pollution. (Not a surprise in London.) The sculpture later moved to its current location, on a roundabout in Trafalgar Way, Blackwall, next to Billingsgate Market. It is eight-metres tall and has 75 sets of lights controlled by a computer. The initial plan, in the tree’s original location in the heart of London’s money markets, was for the lights to change as the stock market rose or fell.
Text © Rosalind Ormiston 15 January 2024
