---> Mobile details are below photos <---

ARTIST: Lloyd Konneker

TITLE: Inversion

Displays: Hangs from ceiling & Ascends from floor

Height (w/out hanging wire): 4 ft

Max Width: 54 in

Weight: <1 lbs

MOBILE INFO:

Balloons, balsa wood, nylon thread.

The work is not completed yet. The work will be a mobile of air balloons hung from the ceiling, and beneath it, a mobile of helium balloons floating from the floor. The video shows the upper half. The still image is the same mobile shown in the video, but the image is upside down to suggest the lower half. I haven’t actually constructed the lower half yet. I believe it can be done. I am saving the moment of creation for possible use in the show.

Possibilities:

1) I will construct the entire work and install it

2) I will provide materials and I or a group of artists will construct the work during the opening, as performance art (it should take about an hour, with help. We can prearrange a loop of string to hoist the upper half.)

3) I will install the upper half and provide materials for the lower half. A group of viewers will be encouraged to construct/reconstruct the lower half.

4) I will install the upper half and provide materials in the original commercial box which I will lay beneath the upper half. The work is then conceptual, with notes of Warhol. Viewers would want to go home and create the lower half themselves. It would suggest the politics of scarce helium supplies

Balloons, especially helium balloons, deflate over a period of days to weeks. The work must be constructed shortly before or during the show. No matter when the work is constructed, it will likely morph into limp balloons, probably out of balance. I have not experimented with a mobile of balloons (except just now the pictured upper half.) The work may require larger balloons than pictured, say the mylar pillow balloons that are about 18 inches across, requiring at least a 54 inch column of space. As far as I know, a mobile of helium balloons has not been done before. A quick search yielded no results. Calder himself did a print colloquially known as “balloons.” Combinations of mobiles above stabiles also seem rare.

This work is such a combination, and could be done similarly in other materials. I anticipate the lower and upper halves will be close to each other, but not intertwined in quiet air. But they could be intertwined. A tank of helium and 30 balloons are available from Walmart or Party City for $20+. The image shows balsa sticks and quilting thread, also easy to obtain.