About the artwork

The idea for the Sow Balloons or Trapping Their Own Breath started mainly from the fact that Echigo-Tsumari is a mountainous region which during the heavy winter stays isolated because of the snow, and from the idea to preserve-collect the warm summer breaths of its inhabitants. To keep a breath for the difficult days that might come. The Snow Balloons is an interactive sculpture, an installation that consists from 1,000 balloons that is being shaped from the participation of its viewers. I wanted to trap their breaths by askig them to inflate 1,000 balloons formed like snow crystals during the whole time of the exhibition.