Inspired by The Balloon by Donald Barthelme, this project imagines balloons as spiritual entities drifting through the city and interacting with people, architecture, and urban space. In Barthelme’s story, a gigantic balloon expands across Manhattan, transforming the familiar cityscape into something surreal and emotionally ambiguous. This shift from the ordinary to the uncanny became the starting point of my project.

A key sentence from the story states: “Each intersection was crucial, meeting of balloon and building, meeting of balloon and man, meeting of balloon and balloon.” Inspired by this idea of continuous encounters, I explored how balloons might occupy and negotiate urban space through different forms of interaction and collision.

Through drawing and collage, I developed scenes in which balloons become active protagonists within the city: squeezed between roads, floating above rooftops, or pressing against buildings and human bodies. I combined marker and coloured-pencil drawings with balloon collage elements, enhancing both the tactile quality and playful atmosphere of the work while emphasising the balloon as a narrative presence rather than a passive object.

The illustrations were framed and mounted on walls to strengthen their physical presence and create a more immersive viewing experience, encouraging viewers to engage with the imagined spatial relationships within the work.

The project later expanded into a three-dimensional installation that translated the illustrated world into physical space. To recreate the retro visual aesthetic of the original drawings, I painted colourful architectural forms onto acrylic sheets using acrylic paint. The figures were hand-sculpted from lightweight clay, giving them expressive and playful characteristics. The balloons were also painted with acrylics, while long strings made from jute twine extended into the surrounding space, heightening the sense of interaction, movement, and dimensionality.