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MACHINE DREAMS

Alexei Taylor, Author

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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.
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