What’s it like to have a gallery filled with thousands of balloons?

CRAZY!

On February 3, Joe Meiser filled the Samek Art Gallery with literally thousands of yellow balloons as part of his exhibition INFLUX.

This struck me for more than one reason. One, it completely changes the way you experience, feel, perceive, and even more around in the gallery setting.

You oddly become aware of your feet. But I think it was also an interesting experience because instead of meandering through the gallery as I usually would, passively gazing at each work as I moved about the space, I took a break between each work. The balloons grabbed my attention, not only because they loved to pop and scare the skittles out of me, they made me focus on something else, allowing me to contemplate each work in my mind, and to cleanse my palette before looking at the next piece. In this way it allowed me to approach each work afresh and to take more time.

Secondly, the gallery, the balloons, the installation, and the many people present for Joe’s talk and reception made the environment incredibly lively. This is how museums should be, to hell with the solemn, quite, and passive halls of the Metropolitan, I want people talking and moving. Check out this video of the reception and you’ll see what I mean:

Influx from Dan Nienhuis on Vimeo.

Now, unfortunately, all of the balloons are gone, but the exhibition is still up until March 29.