Explore the gallery

The Exploratorium x COLLINS

Born, quite literally, out of thin air, this exhibition of inflatable sculptures conjures a realm that feels both surreal and strangely familiar. Like stepping into a dream where the ordinary laws of gravity and form no longer apply, visitors are immersed in a world of otherworldly organisms, a forest of plush, cushiony columns, and an insect-eye room that invites them to see the world from a creaturely vantage. The pièce de résistance is an inflatable, multi-lensed camera obscura that feels uncannily like stepping into the compound eye of an insect—a disorienting yet oddly captivating experience.

And then there are the massive, crouching humanoid figures, their balloon-like forms filling the West Gallery from floor to ceiling. These giants, who seem to be frozen mid-motion, turn the room into a dollhouse where the viewer is both spectator and participant, dwarfed by their exaggerated presence. The sense of scale here is transformative—childlike wonder meets existential awe.

But perhaps the most poetic gesture of all comes in the form of a balloon-based artwork inspired by organic forms, slowly deflating over the course of the exhibition, a quiet meditation on biological decay. It’s an installation that speaks as much to the fragility of life as it does to the playful nature of inflatables.

The branding for the exhibition captures this ephemeral, whimsical spirit with pitch-perfect precision. The bright blue, bouncy typography that adorns buses and posters across the city is an homage to the playful, squishy forms that define the show.

These balloon-like letters seem to inflate and deflate, bounce and stretch, much like the sculptures themselves, offering a playful yet sophisticated nod to the malleable nature of the art.

In a city teeming with art, this exhibition and its clever branding leave an indelible mark, making the invisible visible and the weightless profoundly tangible.

Credits

Kris Wong

Sohee Kim

Matt Luckhurst

Ben Crick

Anna Sternoff

Angie Shih

Joanna Hobson

Erik Berger Vaage

The Exploratorium