A hot air balloon was inflated to fill every available inch of the gallery, i.e. once inside we saw only balloon silk lining the floors, walls and ceiling of the Marc Foxx space. The skin of the balloon was continuously plumped up with regular temperature air via two standard fans just visible there at the edges of the entrance. Wire straps fixed the balloon to the wicker basket, forcing the entering or departing visitor to dip down, as if passing under a country fence. I did wish there was fire involved.

All three images by the matchless Sergei Prokudin-Gorskii, roughly 1911, from the Library of Congress Archives.

I was heart warmed by the video in this last image. A fine mist of lit-up dust drifted in the foreground. Through this brownian dance the camera followed seven or so grey munchkins, hunchbacked, with tall pointy hats, as they slowly orbited a featureless grey room. They seemed to be intentionally sleep shuffling, and at moments became absorbed in a wizardly tai chi. A wonderfully strange, slowed-down soundtrack accompanied the projection: Muffled voices extended into incomprehensible, musical abstraction. Delicious.

As much fun to photograph the projectors/monitors as the monitored. Info on the show here.

Hauser & Wirth showed a silent film in the basement that documented the making of Jason Rhoades’ Perfect World at Diechtorhallen, Hamburg, 1999. The last picture shows the inexplicable organist, who was rocking out in a haz mat suit in the same room where the aluminum scaffolding tubes were being polished.