9*9 Delight Balloons - Lonely Corridor Studio

An experiment about memories, presence, and the absence-saturation paradox. A friend once half-jokingly suggested I visit her while she was away. I did — it felt empty. “Well, actually… no one is really absent if you still recall them from your memories,” she commented, “when you think of them, you summon part of their spirit to you.”

Balloons as Memories

Each of the 9 × 9 = 81 balloons represents an abstract watercolor memory fragment,

as each memory fragment corresponds to, is related to, or is inspired by the soul friend. The balloons gave the memory fragments a body. Each balloon exists because of a memory fragment — this work is a chain of index-referent relationships: balloons —> fragments —> colors —> tinted memories —> the recalling of original memories —> original memories.

Each of the 9 × 9 = 81 balloons represents an abstract watercolor memory fragment,

Lunar Eclipse
Clear Stream
Sage, Sepia, Shower
Moon
Bunny Language
Hot Tea
Lost Monday
LA on a
Saturday Night
Traffic Lights

Lunar Eclipse
Clear Stream
Sage, Sepia, Shower
Moon
Bunny Language
Hot Tea
Lost Monday
LA on a
Saturday Night
Traffic Lights

Origin of Colors

Physical absence created a saturation of memories. Every time I recall a fragment, two contradictory yet coherent things happened: the memory bled into the present, while also getting tinted by the present — by surroundings, temperature, somatic sensations, smell, mood, and so on.
Each spirit-summoning became an re-event, rather than a re-play. One prominent spirit arrived with some blurred colors: green from the grass outside my studio and light brown from the streets.
Every time I summoned part of her spirit, that spirit lived alongside me for a moment, and my new memory being formed was partially shaped by that spirit too. I began seeing more colors, and started jointing these abstract visions down with watercolor as memory fragments.

Physical absence created a saturation of memories. Every time I recall a fragment, two contradictory yet coherent things happened: the memory bled into the present, while also getting tinted by the present — by surroundings, temperature, somatic sensations, smell, mood, and so on.
Each spirit-summoning became an re-event, rather than a re-play. One prominent spirit arrived with some blurred colors: green from the grass outside my studio and light brown from the streets.
Every time I summoned part of her spirit, that spirit lived alongside me for a moment, and my new memory being formed was partially shaped by that spirit too. I began seeing more colors, and started jointing these abstract visions down with watercolor as memory fragments.

Here, colors are affective indexes to abstract thoughts,

emerging from flows of bodily and emotional conditions in the “present” time. They are traces back to the state(s) that produced them. Since these states are tinted by the present time, they become indexes as well, pointing to the moment when the original memories were brought to the present and re-tinted.

Here, colors are affective indexes to abstract thoughts,

This experiment made reunion interesting and a little confusing.

Presence didn’t replace the previous absence. Like the tethered balloons, versions of her created during absence lived on, still linked to the present image of her.

This experiment made reunion interesting and a little confusing.

Presence didn’t replace the previous absence. Like the tethered balloons, versions of her created during absence lived on, still linked to the present image of her.

Body of Works

9*9 Delight Balloons is designed to be surprising and tender:

when was the last time you saw 81 pearl-white balloons floating above campus? 9*9 Delight Balloons allows personal memories to take off into a shared atmosphere. The balloons turn the memories into objects with affordances: each memory you carry around is like a delight (or de-heavy) balloon that floats above your mind that you can grab. No one is leaving if you still remember them, and this work becomes an invite for a quiet form of care — holding onto those we care about closer.

9*9 Delight Balloons is designed to be surprising and tender: