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FriendsWithYou's inflatable fun
Posted by Eliza Williams, 5 July 2010, 13:31 Permalink Comments (14)
Miami-based artist duo FriendsWithYou travelled north to Toronto recently, to take part in the Wish Come True Festival. They created an inflatable town in the centre of the city, plus much more.
FriendsWithYou are artists Samuel Borkson and Arturao Sandoval III. They have worked together since 2002, and say that they want to spread a "postive message of Magic, Luck and Friendship with their art". They certainly appear to have brought a lot of joy to Toronto, judging by the pics they have sent us.
The Wish Come True Festival took place from June 10-20. FriendsWithYou were commissioned by the Luminato Festival of the Arts to create work for the festival, and responded with a number of inflatable installations, a pop-up shop, gallery show and an animation.
At the centre of their work was The Rainbow King, above, an ambassador for the festival. You an see him making his way around town in the YouTube film above.
The Rainbow City, a large installation of giant totems, magical mushrooms, oversized bouncy houses, and inflatable characters all appeared in downtown Toronto, on the site of the city's presitigious parliament building in Queen's Park. Visitors were invited to play with all the sculptures.
Sculptures were also displayed in two large-scale commercial spaces in the city. Starburst, shown first above, was displayed at the Bay Adelaide Centre. "Starburst is the captured moment of an exploding star," say FriendsWithYou. "In its grand scale it is kinetic even without motion. He is constantly exploding and being reborn for you to witness." The Secret Garden, above, was displayed in the Wintergarden lobby.
In addition, FriendsWithYou showed a solo exhibition of paintings at Narwhal Art Projects and also set up a pop-up shop at Magic Pony in the city, selling prints and art products. Two of the prints are shown above. These can also be brought online on the artists' website, here. We defy you not to feel cheerful looking at their work.
14 Comments
This proper made me smile. Their design is full of optimism, really quirky and fun. Great work.
2010-07-06 10:18:47
I love it
2010-07-06 14:05:44
Amazing! i love these!
2010-07-06 16:35:30
gorgeous stuff - really brightens the day.
2010-07-06 16:40:34
This is amazing - we need something like this in the UK to cheer up the grey days! Fun for all ages too - love it.
2010-07-06 17:08:44
definitely be posting this on! awesome work!
2010-07-06 20:02:45
love it! That work is amazing!!
2010-07-06 23:01:59
oh, I'm so sad I missed. The one thing I'm actually local for. This is a-ma-zing! They really brought the characters to life in their settings.
2010-07-08 05:38:10
beautifull!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
2010-07-12 01:26:09
This is beautiful. I wish I did this for a living.
2010-07-12 13:28:00
Looking through these pieces of work certainly brings a smile to my face. Having been used to seeing works of art usually on canvas or paper, these 3D inflated characters which make a whole town is is definitely a much more up lifting way of appreciating design as a whole. The actual sizes of the inflatables, the colours used and the curved shapes really give a happy and friendly approach.
I absolutely love the little doodled characters, reminds me of the one's I used to doodle influenced by the illustrator Jon Burgerrman. The fact that they're all enlarged into making a inflatable town is amazing. It most definitely spreads a “positive message of Magic, Luck and Friendship...” Keep up the excellent work.
Chandni Patel.
2010-07-13 12:50:06
Spooky, like being locked in CBBC.
2010-07-14 10:05:21
It made me feel smile & relax...its so amazing and hilarious....my God i love it.
inflatable
2010-08-31 10:11:00
wow. these are really fun and cute. I never got what was so attractive about big gorillas or dinosaurs (unless you're a 6 year old boy, of course), but these I like.
2010-10-21 02:06:22
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