Art

#animals #balloons #birds #Masayoshi Matsumoto #sculpture

Balloons Puff and Twist into an Elaborate Inflatable Ensemble by Masayoshi Matsumoto

November 7, 2022

Grace Ebert

A photo of a balloon turkey

All images © Masayoshi Matsumoto, shared with permission

Armed with colorful balloons and plenty of air, Masayoshi Matsumoto (previously) twists and ties a playfully quirky menagerie of inflatable creatures. A chemical engineer by day, the artist spends his off hours stretching the malleable material into a sticky-fingered tree frog or plump squirrel, elevating the creations typically associated with children’s birthday parties or carnivals into elaborate sculptural works.

Matsumoto is loyal to the bendable material and forgoes paints, glues, and other fasteners, and many of the animals accentuate the shape of the balloons themselves: deflated tips resemble claws and puffed oblongs hang like shaggy fur or splay upward like a rooster’s crest.

Find more of the latex animals on the artist’s Instagram and Tumblr, and head to YouTube for tutorials on creating your own characters, as well.

 

A photo of a balloon tree frog

A photo of a balloon rooster

A photo of a balloon cicada

A photo of a balloon bird

A photo of a balloon sea creature

A photo of a balloon squirrel

A photo of a balloon dog

A photo of a balloon bird

A photo of a balloon butterfly

 

 

#animals #balloons #birds #Masayoshi Matsumoto #sculpture

 

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