BigShinyThing

Normally, any combination of the words ‘colourful balloons’ and ‘public art’ would have BigShinyThing running for the first bus out of Hackney. But the good people at Haque have converted us: their project for the opening of London Fashion Week — Burble, which will lift-off Sunday September 16, 2007, 20:00 in Holland Park — is monumental in scale, intimate in engagement, and looks fun for all. Commissioned by Moët & Chandon, Burble is comprised of around a thousand helium-filled balloons, LED lighting and more electronic microcontrollers than you could shake a geek-stick at.

Members of the public come together to compose, assemble and control an immense rippling, glowing, bustling ‘Burble’ that sways in the evening sky, in response to the crowd interacting below. This massive structure, the form of which the public has themselves designed, exists at such a large scale that it is able to compete visually in an urban context with the skyscrapers that surround it.

Burble was premiered last year at the Singapore Biennale (see picture above). Haque have more photos from that event on their site. See you there!

Christo and Jean-Claude’s installation in Central Park, The Gates, was responsible for a surge in visitors to New York during a traditionally slow travel month, generating three times the spending that City Hall expected: some $254m

‘The Gates’ attracted over 4m visitors to Central Park during the two weeks it was up, a tremendous gain over the 750,000 people who usually visit in that period. Hotel occupancy rates were near 90%, compared with 70% at the same time last year. Elsewhere, international tourists increased 74%, spiking attendance in local restaurants and museums. (The Metropolitan Museum of Art, which has a roof garden overlooking Central Park, had a 90% jump in visitors.) Even Broadway felt the impact: ticket sales increased 17% during the first week of ‘The Gates’. Carriage drivers usually stable their horses in winter, but this February they were hardly ever without passengers.

‘The Gates’ didn’t even cost the city anything to install since Christo and Jeanne-Claude funded the $21m project themselves. Some 1,100 workers were paid to install, maintain, secure and remove the piece, with everything dissembled by March 15th.