Tadao Cern’s floating black balloon installations evoke a sense of ethereal wonder, transforming ordinary spaces into realms where the invisible becomes palpable. The ghostly presence of these balloons defies gravity, hovering in the air as if suspended by unseen forces. These installations capture a spectrum of themes — from the tangible to the abstract, from control to spontaneity. As participants wander through these buoyant black orbs, they find themselves engaged in a silent conversation, a call-and-response without the need for spoken words. Each balloon, though anchored to nothing tangible, becomes a vessel for the mind’s musings, offering a space for reflection on the dance between materiality and the void.
The allure of Cern’s work lies in its capacity to echo the duality between order and chaos, between what is and what might be. The constellations of balloons challenge the observer to ponder the nature of existence itself — is it the structured pattern of our routines or the unpredictable flow of moments that truly captures life’s essence? The installations, while visually ephemeral, carry a profound permanence in the memories they imprint. As the black orbs eventually succumb to time, deflating and returning to their original state of non-existence, they leave behind a gentle reminder of the transient beauty found in the present moment. In this fleeting encounter, Cern uses simplicity to reveal complex truths, inviting an evolving personal narrative within each observer.
They represent nothing, a true emptiness. Which is felt every single time looking at the cloud of these black floating objects, eagerly waiting to be forced to react to our presence… react with no message, no notion. It’s just a dialog between us and them; here and now. Which will develop into a reminiscence of an idea once balloons will deflate and the work will become non-existent again.
Tadao Cern
More info: Website, Behance, Instagram (h/t: Widewalls).
