Rawrrr!

April 22, 2008 9:30 AM

Joshua Allen Harris makes inflatable sculptures out of found trash bags: bear, creatures, monster. via wooster collective.
posted by serazin (19 comments total)

More Air Bears (with salmon).
posted by D.C. at 10:39 AM on April 22, 2008

Very cool - and oddly creepy, especially when the air runs out.
posted by The Light Fantastic at 10:42 AM on April 22, 2008

BigTallDave101 would appreciate this (related).
posted by skyper at 11:02 AM on April 22, 2008

The way they shake about is cool

better than a lot of the street "art" you see around
posted by BritishGas at 11:27 AM on April 22, 2008

These are wonderful. There's a hot air vent at Reed College that's often decorated similarly (though never, I think, quite as spectacularly) during various campus events, which I've always been fond of.
posted by dizziest at 11:54 AM on April 22, 2008

Very cool.

However my dog has something to say to Mr. Harris ( I will transcribe).

You no funny, monstor maker man. giant bag monstor no funny. why you try fool dog? me know it not real. bear not look like that all jiggly. but me can't help but want to kill bag monstor. me go to pee or sniff ... and...
AAAH AAAAAAAAAH AAH! MONSTOR! MUST KILL! KILL!...
posted by tkchrist at 12:54 PM on April 22, 2008 [1 favorite]

OK, that's pretty neat.
posted by jquinby at 12:55 PM on April 22, 2008

I saw this post earlier and figured, pah, probably just rubbish (pardon the pun) but these are super fun, great post :)
posted by zeoslap at 1:07 PM on April 22, 2008

Awesome. I want to do this in Philly, as we have tons of those grates over the Broad St. Line.
posted by Mister_A at 1:21 PM on April 22, 2008

In a rebuttal to tkchrist's dog's views, mine had this to say:

Fuck! it's a bag, it's a bear, it doesn't move right. It doesn't smell right. I can't eat it, but I think it might eat me. I must hide! First I must pee on the floor, yes. Excellent, that will leave a stain. Now I flee!
posted by quin at 1:29 PM on April 22, 2008

Where is the Marilyn Monroe one?
posted by clearly at 2:03 PM on April 22, 2008

This is grate art.
posted by dirtdirt at 2:12 PM on April 22, 2008

The plastic sheets that these are made of have most likely been joined with one of three methods; adhesives, adhesive tape, or welding. Yes, it is most certainly possible to weld plastic, as my friend Dave and I discovered back in the 1970's when we used this method to make hot air balloon UFO's.

If you place thin polyethylene sheets between newspapers, then run over it with an iron on the wool setting (if I remember correctly) the plastic will fuse together. A more elegant method in my opinion than tape or glue.

Not surprisingly, Instructables has an article on how to do this using a soldering iron.

Great post!
posted by Tube at 4:14 PM on April 22, 2008 [1 favorite]

I hope that trash baggers become as ubiquitous as taggers. I would be so entertained.
posted by Frank Grimes at 7:04 PM on April 22, 2008

This makes me slightly sad we don't have subways where I live... but the monster is really neat.
posted by Unicorn on the cob at 8:11 PM on April 22, 2008

Ooo! He just posted a new one! Air monkey.
posted by serazin at 9:08 PM on April 22, 2008

This is good.

What screws my head about art street is that it's so classified....to the point that much fanaticism and dogma has come to supplant inspiration and [gulp] humor. The good stuff transcends!

These are terrific for just that reason. The menagerie, eh. But the bears, monster, and monkey? WOWSER!

PS Wooster = corporate.
posted by humannaire at 9:37 AM on April 23, 2008

Hey humannaire, can you elaborate on wooster = corporate?
posted by serazin at 10:03 AM on April 23, 2008

Sure. Wooster has positioned itself as a power-broker, endorsing select artists and aiding in the monetizing of street art.

The line between OBEY brand and Coca-Cola street campaigning is not thin; it is non-existent.

Wooster is great fun. But it's influence and aesthetic choices are consistently made use of for the re-contextualizing of street art as itself into street art as commercial product. Ditto street artists. Wooster=we encourage the art rock star system.

Whereas it may have once "been cool" to be a "street artist" [sic] upped by Wooster, now it is a commercial requisite! The price of fame? More like the profit of it.

Full disclosure: I am widely known as co-author of the Andre The Giant Has A Posse campaign ('92-'00) which somehow led to OBEY. When the campaign incorporated, and Andre The Giant Has A Posse (aka GIANT) became OBEY, I fought it. But when money made from the brand OBEY ceased being funneled into the international GIANT street teams but rather into the coffers of OBEY's owners, and the campaign was being used to shill the brand, I completely distanced myself and the GIANT street team efforts for which I was responsible. This piece of mine from '05 relates much of that.
posted by humannaire at 12:49 AM on April 26, 2008 [1 favorite]