Bouncy House. Epitaph to the Flame

Watercolor on paper,  2015-ongoing

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As a component of my research in China, I designed and produced an all-white entry-less bouncy house in collaboration with Chinnee Inflatables, a factory that specializes in inflatable products located in industrial Guangzhou. I visited the factory to translate my design which brought together two strands of inquiry; at the moment I was reading Bataille’s Visions of Excess and was coping with the idea of art as an unproductive expenditure, and I also wanted to make a large-scale sculpture that could expand and contract while having a direct relationship to the body. The factory owners were skeptical about my design – four pillars connected by four walls with no opening - and asked about its functionality. I resisted telling them it was for art’s sake and after some resistance they agreed to produce my unproductive white bouncy house. When I got my customized bouncy house back in San Francisco, I discovered that the workers found a way to materialize my design while still make it accessible: they made vertical slits through the inflatable columns.

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These are drawings made from intimate memories while bouncing in this object and include appearances by Jessica Robinns, Xandra Ibarra and Vito Acconci.

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