Sign in or register
for additional privileges

MACHINE DREAMS

Alexei Taylor, Author

You appear to be using an older verion of Internet Explorer. For the best experience please upgrade your IE version or switch to a another web browser.

So what?

Joshua Allen Harris is a street artist who creates inflatable sculptures on the streets of New York City. He uses shopping and trash bags to create animals and other animated creatures. The New York City Metro trains give life to the sculpture and make the art possible. The subway air or exhaust is what fuels this art. This byproduct of the extensive and powerful subway system breathes life into what can appear as trash on the subway vents. Only certain trains create enough airflow to give life to his creations, so this dictates where he places them throughout the city. He has created a Loch Ness monster, a bear, a monkey, a buffalo, and a giraffe, among others.
The inflatable sculptures are given life by the subway system, a system built by humans that relies on machines to function. Although on a regimented schedule, the coming and going of the trains creates a cycle of deflation and inflation that makes the sculptures feel more temporal, and thus more authentically animated. The juxtaposition of the hard, flat-sided shapes of the buildings of New York City and the rotund, airy shapes of the sculptures makes them stand out immediately. Even more, the sculptures are animals in the middle of an urban human environment - hardly the place one would normally encounter a bear or a giraffe.
Comment on this page
 

Discussion of "So what?"

Add your voice to this discussion.

Checking your signed in status ...

Previous page on path Final Paper Proposal. Inflatable Street Art: Joshua Allen Harris, page 2 of 5 Next page on path

Related:  Les nouvelles créatures de Joshua Allen HarrisSubway InteriorNew York CityVindexReality EffectSubway BreathFeireiss, Lukas. "Larissa Fassler: The Body and the City." Deutsche Bank ArtMag. Trans. Wilhelm Werthern. Deutsche Bank AG, n.d. Web. 10 Dec. 2012.RaceThe Capitalist's Communist CommodityJoshua Allen HarrisBearWhat is this path? And how to maneuver itSpectatorMarc Jacobs T-Shirt close upWalking in New York CityCityMarc Jacobs Store ClerkAlteritygiraffeVatican 3-DSculpture disguised as trashThe TakeawayHot Chip - I Feel BetterThat's Not Trash; It's Artrunaway gargoyle in parisSigur Rós - Fjögur píanóUSSR/CCCP Propaganda PosterHerculesPrice (and Fact) Checkair apeUnsure AnswersGhostcatching-BillTJonesAmber Case: We are all cyborgs nowEyad from Marc JacobsEyad holding T-ShirtGray, Christopher, ed. "Essays from Leaving the 20th Century." What Is Situationism?: A Reader. Ed. Stewart Home. Edinburgh, Scotland: AK, 1996. N. pag. Print.Final Paper Proposal. Inflatable Street Art: Joshua Allen HarrisBanksy vs. Bristol MuseumSociety of the SpectacleCyborgSymbolicJoshua Allen Harris' Portfolio. Joshua Allen Harris, n.d. Web. 1 Dec. 2012. .BibliographyEffect on the viewerBackground Image Marc JacobsMan with BalloonTractorsWalk continuedOscar PistoriusMarc Jacobs T-ShirtAn Initial Confusion of NationalitiesFreud, Sigmund. "The Uncanny." MIT. Massachusetts Institute of Technology, n.d. Web. 1 Dec. 2012. .farmer's petBalloons vs. Inflatable Street ArtRed Gradient Background Marc Jacobs(Personalized) PropagandaSources so farExit Through the Gift ShopMarc Jacobs StoreFirst Lamborghini Tractor Black and WhiteMarc Jacobs Store InteriorSituationist Map of ParisThrough the lens of Situationism and the DériveBeirut - The Rip Tide (Official Video)Unitary UrbanismBristol Museum vs. BanksyCue the HipstersFeelings on InflationRace in Rome, 1960Inflatable? How so?What makes an observer modern; Diana GluckTemporalityGet ready to wanderWhat is it about these sculptures?LungsLamborghini Tractorinflatable sculptureLungsEquivalenceThe Devil SheepMetrocardAndreotti, Libero. Theory of the Dérive and Other Situationist Writings on the City. Museu d'Art Contemporani de Barcelona, 1996. Print.Effect on viewer (continued)Subway DiagramVideo: air giraffeSesame Street and Deep QuestionsNeelon, Caleb, Diederick Kraaijiveld, and Joshua Allen Harris. "Profile. Bora Baskan/Profile Diederick Kraaijiveld/Profile Joshua Allen Harris." Juxtapoz, 95 (2008): 22-24.SimulationbearsStore from the level aboveAir Bear, NYC Urban Art,