BALLOON TAPESTRY WITH THE SOUND OF ITS OWN MAKING
(TRIBUTE TO ROBERT MORRIS)
a composition and sound installation by Judy Dunaway

Window Gallery, Center for New Music, San Francisco, CA, 2024

​Description: Balloon twisting is both an art and a skill. Commonly used by street and party entertainers, it has also been used to weave artistic creations and even for fashion. These professionals use “twister” balloons, long thin latex balloons manufactured especially for this purpose. However, as a “sound artist,” my interest is in the sound of the weaving. This composition/sound installation is about the sound of the weaving and the visual culmination of that sound. During regular exhibition hours, “twister” balloons are woven together each day on site and afterward hung in the space. An audio recording is made of the weaving. When the balloons are not being woven, the recording of the weaving is played back in the room. The twister balloons will gradually deflate over the course of a few days or weeks, and new balloon tapestry squares are added on a regular basis. It is a futile exercise, as the creation is constantly dying. However the audio library will accumulate, making a longer and longer loop. The form of the piece changes throughout the duration of the exhibition.   (This piece may be performed by any number of participants for any length of time. Click here for score.)

Artist Statement: “Balloon Tapestry with the Sound of Its Own Making” is rooted in conceptual art works of the 1960s that also used balloons.  Many artists in the Fluxus movement utilized latex toy balloons in their work.  My piece relates to the Fluxus movement in its use of a mainstream object, an ephemeral object not part of “high art.”  The colors I choose are those used for making “character” balloons — woven balloons that are made to look like people, though I insert a red balloon to indicate blood as well, the color of menstruation, birth, life and death.  The tapestry itself is a feminist statement, with the long history of women as weavers and seamstresses.  Like Fluxus artist Mieko Shiomi’s “Air Event” (1964) that used balloons inflated by the audience, it’s created by an untrained group, it belongs to the people, but the hidden emphasis is the sound.  The air is not possessed and it leaks out through the course of the installation.  Unlike Robert Morris’ famous minimalist work “Box with the Sound of Its Own Making” (1961) it’s not a fixed wooden box that will be in a museum.  It’s ephemeral.  It will be “made” and it will die during the course of its display.  The latex itself will rot in a few years.  Reminiscent of Piero Manzoni’s seminal artwork “Artists Breath” (1960) in which he sold a balloon containing his own breath that deflated and rotted over time, we’re left only with a remnant.  The only thing left in the end are the squeaky sounds of its making.

​Materials: 100% latex twister balloons, biodegradable ribbon, air, audio recording device, method(s) for audio playback

San Francisco performance of "Balloon Tapestry with the Sound of Its Own Making (Tribute to Robert Morris)" in November 2024. Performers (l-r): Brent Miller, Cheryl Leonard, Kattt Atchley, Tristan O'Shea, Judy Dunaway, Steed Cowart, Brenda Hutchinson, Rachel Rehmet. Score also pictured.

​Exhibitions:
Harvestworks "New Waves in Art and Tech" Exhibition, Governors Island, NYC, May 17 - August 18, 2024
Window Gallery at Center for New Music, San Francisco, CA, November 2 - December 12, 2024

Governor's Island version with time-lapsed photos below: