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There's A Balloon-Filled Room Waiting For You In Chinatown
By
Scott Lynch
Published Dec 17, 2015
Modified Dec 17, 2015
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Photo by Scott Lynch/Gothamist
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By
Scott Lynch
Published Dec 17, 2015
Modified Dec 17, 2015
Share
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Remember when ball pits for adults were all the rage downtown? Pfffft, nowadays you need more than that to reel in the selfie seekers... er, cultural sophisticates. Enter Martin Creed, the Turner Prize-winning British artist whose innocuously-named "Work No. 2592" is currently making people extremely happy at Gavin Brown's Enterprise in Chinatown.
No surprise: it's a large room filled with hundreds of big red balloons that you get play in for as long you like.
(Scott Lynch/Gothamist)
Or half-filled, to be more accurate. Creed's subtitle to all of his balloon-room installations over the years (he's done a bunch) has been "Half the air in a given space"—air which he has appropriated and put inside the art. Is that interesting? I'm not sure. But I do know that it is really pretty to look at, really fun to wade through and "swim" in, and everyone who entered the gallery immediately started giggling.
Hair got crazy staticky. Giddy shrieks rang out every time a balloon popped. One couple sat down on the floor, completely buried in a balloon fort, and couldn't stop laughing. "I was having such a crap day" one woman said. "Not anymore."
You too can not have a crap day by playing in Martin Creed's balloon room, but only through this Saturday, December 19th. Gavin Brown is located at 291 Grand Street, on the corner of Eldridge, and is open from 12 to 6 p.m.
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Martin Creed
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Scott Lynch
Photojournalist, food writer, preschool receptionist. Love NYC.
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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