Aerial Being

• 2007
• 190 x 60 x 90cm
• material : Plastic Film (HEPTAX), Helium and Air

I made a human figure lighter than air to give maximum expression to
ultra super-thin fiber that has been described as being so light that it seems
to melt in the air. I focused on the balance between the buoyance of
helium gas and the weight of the fiber and tried our all kinds of physical
postures for the figure searching for one that would facilitate perfect
counterbalance of the helium and fiber in the air.

The fiber trying to land counterbalances the human figure trying to float.
The fiber was both a safety rope that connected the human body to the ground
and a barometer of the human life force. The helium gas slowly goes out of
the micron-sized apertures in the balloon figure It gradually deflates,
losing its life sprit. The fiber lands on the floor. While the figure was being exhibited,
I found the sight of someone pumping more helium into it indescribably strange.

I made figurses based on the Aerial Being figure but expanded to a length of
12 meters and floated them in the lobby at Haneda Airport. The figure continues
to expand via an electric fan attached at the navel that sucks in air breathed by
the people present in the lobby and air brought in from airports in other locations.