Pop culture

Let's talk about balloons for a second.\nAt first glance, there's really not that much to them. Sure, they're colorful. Sure, they can fly. Sure, they can make you sound like a chipmunk if you inhale their helium (which, by the way, is absolutely not funny). Does all this equal, in the mind of the artist, a deep and personal means of self-expression? Balloons just sort of exist; they are almost ubiquitous in every sort of gathering that somehow involves a lot of kids in one place. They are, in the minds of most, a symbol of frivolity in all forms. Oh hooray, a balloon!\nThe showing of balloon sculptures at Gallery West Espresso Friday was so full of these sorts of purely joyful feelings it was almost overpowering. As the creators of these sculptures, Tiffany Berg, Marissa Galindo and Lauren Johnson, put on the finishing touches even as people were filing in, children ran all over the small gallery, admiring these pure, colorful floating forms that seemed to exist somewhere outside nature. Dozens of sculptures, floating and grounded, were stuffed into a limited space, causing the works to touch and overlap. The overall effect was rather strange, especially when paired with the black and white photographs of naked men and women adorning the walls of the gallery. This was much to the chagrin of protective parents whose children were fondling a balloon cake right next to a set of breasts in sharp focus.\nBut these sculptures represented much more than an easy emotion. As everyone may or may not be aware, balloons are rather hard to work with. They are mutable containers of air under pressure, which wants to escape in a huge, toddler scream-inducing bang. The sculptures there -- most notably a faceless mermaid, a giant purple octopus with curly purple tentacles, a large black and white cow, and, no joke, a balloon pie -- looked like they required a high level of expertise. \n"These girls are so creative," said Pamela Ladd, a manager at Blast Off Balloons on Kirkwood Avenue. She employs all three of the artists at her shop and oversees their work. "They just started making things on their break, got better and better, and pretty soon we thought, hey, we should put these sculptures on exhibit."\nBerg, an IU sophomore and one of the show's sculpture artists, downplayed the amount of work and creativity that must go into these sculptures.\n"Once you know how to twist and push and stick everything together, everything goes fine," she said. More important than technique, the artists agreed, were concept and style.\n"I sometimes see these pictures in magazines or just in my head, and I say to myself, 'I wonder if I could do that with a balloon?'" Galindo said. \nIt seems also these sculptures were inspired largely by the friendship the artists share, and the sense of community they have encountered at Blast Off Balloons. \n"I try to give them a creative and fun environment to work in, and it seems they've really taken off with it," Ladd said. "Although we've had a lot of great people come through here, it's really rare to get a crew that comes together like (Berg, Johnson, and Galindo) have." \n"I was tired of not having fun at places I worked," Johnson said. "I want to have fun at work, you know? I get nervous singing 'Happy Birthday' in front of 300 people, but it's all worth it in the end." \nAs the show progressed, the artists were content to sit outside and enjoy each others' company.\n"We get all these little boys running in and asking, 'Do you have any ninja or pirate balloons?'" Berg said. "I mean, come on, of course we don't. You don't get ninjas or pirates when you have a bunch of girls working together. They always start to walk away, but then I tell them we've got a pretty hot mermaid sculpture, though."\nEnough said. Personally, I'm hoping when the next wave of art rolls around, balloons will play a major role. Vive le ballon!