Even though you may not know it, you’re probably familiar with the work of environmental artist Doron Gazit. Every time you walk by a car dealership or supermarket and see a balloon person bending comically in the air, you’re viewing a copy of a Gazit original. In 1996, the Israeli native was tasked to build an installation for the closing ceremony of the Summer Olympics in Atlanta,
something that would excite and surprise audiences. The result was the electric fan-powered Fly Guy, a product that’s become an American advertising staple.
Today Gazit regards his most famous invention as “air under the bridge,” but its popularity supports the belief that has driven Gazit’s professional and artistic careers: humans are fascinated by balloons. When he was an industrial design student at Jerusalem’s Bezalel Academy, he helped pay his tuition by making and selling twisted balloon figures on the street. While he continues to construct elaborate inflatable attractions for tradeshows and big events like the World Cup and the Super Bowl with the company he founded, Airdd, he has also spent the last 30 years whipping up glistening wind tunnels and glowing tubes of light to draw people’s attention to the wonders — and abuses — of nature. “I’m looking for surfaces that tell a story and can be used as a canvas,” he explains. Here, he guides us through a photographic survey of his work.
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