Good morning. It’s Friday. Today, and on Fridays through the summer, we’ll focus on things to do in New York over the weekend.
There have been balloons in the Park Avenue Armory before, but never like this.
These not a few dozen balloons for decorations at galas attended by boldface names. These are 600,000-plus balloons that have been shaped and squeezed into sculpture — an astronaut here, a grand piano there, an octopus with tentacles dangling from the ceiling up there. Not far away is an Eiffel Tower, at 25 feet the tallest piece. Close by is a Statue of Liberty.
The installation is called “Balloon Story.” Erica Domesek, its creative producer, said the idea was to “balloonify” the armory, where everyone from soldiers to fashion-show models has marched through its huge drill hall. “What would a jungle look like, all out of balloons?” she said. “What would the sea look like, all out of balloons?”
The answer is a whimsical, imagination-run-wild spectacle. But unlike Jeff Koons’s sculpture “Balloon Dog” — made of mirror-polished stainless steel — the balloons in “Balloon Story” were made of latex and were tied by hand.
And there are balloons-in-balloons, like the moon rocks in the section with the astronaut. Domesek said the designers inflate smaller balloons and stuff them into a larger balloon that will encompass all of them to get the abstract, soft feel: “It’s not a circle; it’s not an oval. It has dimension and texture.”
“Balloon Story” even has homages to balloons — the hot-air kind, with baskets to carry people. One floats in front of another backdrop. Another, with purple and pink stripes, rises near the Eiffel Tower.
But the palette in “Balloon Story” is not just electric reds, oranges, yellows and greens, although there are plenty of them. In a section with several conventional backdrops is a living room with a grayish chair. Overhead, blue paint spills from a can. The chair is a conventional cloth-covered chair that attendees can sit in. The paint is made of balloons that cascade to the floor.
If balloons bring to mind circuses seen in childhood, is “Balloon Story” like a circus? Yes and no. Obviously there are no high-wire artists doing death-defying acts and no ringmaster shouting, “Ladies and gentlemen and children of all ages.”
But “a circus is an extravaganza — you walk in with wonder and you walk out with amazement and excitement,” Domesek said. “That’s what we want with ‘Balloon Story.’ The concept was to take something everybody knows, a balloon. It puts a smile on people’s faces. One balloon can do that, but imagine if you took 600,000 or 700,000 balloons.”
The balloons are filled with air, not helium. They are staying in shape for the eight-week run of “Balloon Story” with help from a biodegradable liquid that was sprayed in before they were inflated. The liquid forms a coating inside the balloon that holds the shape.
But if one droops here or sags there — or bursts — balloon artists are ready to make repairs. “Balloon Story” bills itself as child-friendly, and, as Domesek put it, “Kids want to touch everything.”
They, or their parents, may shiver: The armory, at 643 Park Avenue, at East 66th Street, is a chilly 69 degrees. “It’s a better temperature for the balloons,” she said. “Heat is never good for latex.”
The air-conditioning will let the balloons last until the show closes. On the last day — Saturday, Aug. 24 — attendees can pop as many as they want. Domesek said they will be given protective eyewear and “an item that’s safe but will pop balloons.”
And the pieces? “They’ll get a second life,” Domesek said. “They will get recycled and made into dog toys.”
Weekend Weather
Prepare for a chance of showers and thunderstorms throughout the weekend, with temperatures in the high 80s during the day and dropping to the mid-70s in the evening.
ALTERNATE-SIDE PARKING
In effect until Aug. 13 (Tisha B’Av).
What Else to Do This Weekend
Music and art
Classical music: This weekend at 7:30 p.m., enjoy an evening of Mozart and Joseph Bologne — the biracial 18th-century composer also known as the Chevalier de St.-Georges — played by Lincoln Center’s Festival Orchestra.
100 views of Edo: Catch the last days of the Brooklyn Museum’s exhibit of the artist Utagawa Hiroshige’s 100 Famous Views of Edo, which closes on Sunday.
For film fans and cat lovers
Silent films: Choose from a roster of silent movies for a viewing this weekend as part of the Museum of Modern Art’s Silent Movie Week.
Cats, cats and more cats: On Friday, watch a compilation of cat videos across various locations in New York City for Cat Video Fest.
For more events in New York, here’s a list of what to do this month.
A James Baldwin Centennial Celebration
Before the renowned writer and civil rights activist James Baldwin wrote books, he was a regular at the public library on West 135th Street. “I read everything there,” he later wrote.
On Friday, Baldwin’s neighborhood library branch (now the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture) will celebrate what would have been his 100th birthday with an exhibit of some of his personal papers.
“Jimmy! God’s Black Revolutionary Mouth,” which takes its name from a eulogy by the poet Amiri Baraka, will feature selections from more than 70 boxes (or about 30 linear feet) of Baldwin’s papers in the center’s archives. “Jimmy” is one of two exhibits in a larger initiative by the New York Public Library for Baldwin’s centennial year. The other, “James Baldwin: Mountain to Fire,” is at the Stephen A. Schwarzman Building, the library’s landmark building on Fifth Avenue at 42nd Street.
The two library exhibits are “two parts of a whole,” said Barrye Brown, the associate curator of the Schomburg Center’s manuscripts, archives and rare books division. She said that the one uptown traces the first 10 years of Baldwin’s publishing career, while the one in Midtown displays highlights of his literary career and his overall legacy.
“When you go to each exhibition,” she said, “you will get a really full sense of Baldwin as a person and as a writer.”
Among the items in the Schomburg Center exhibit are handwritten manuscripts; a letter by a “weary” Baldwin to his friend and fellow writer Lorraine Hansberry; a sketch of the set for his first play, “The Amen Corner”; Rhodia notepads with his handwriting; and a planner where, on one page, Baldwin doodled a person and a fish next to a crossed-out meeting.
“I think it gives such an incredible richness to his life and his legacy and to really think about the people that he’s connected with,” Brown said.
Those looking for ways to be part of the centennial celebration can look to the other parts of the library’s initiative, which include a self-guided walking tour, a book giveaway and various free events throughout the city. The Schomburg exhibit will be on display until Feb. 28.
METROPOLITAN diary
Summer quiet
Dear Diary:
My favorite street in the neighborhood has been under construction all year. I still walk it to get to my pottery studio, which is all the way down. A block from the East River.
I went early this morning and walked back to my apartment before work. Looking down at my phone, getting a jump on some emails, I walked right into a tree branch, an arm extended over the sidewalk.
It doused me in cold water. (I guess it rained last night.) It was like an older brother teaching a lesson: “Look up.”
A little family in bathing suits must’ve gone for a swim before 9 a.m. Kids waddling up the stoop. A few stoops down, a babysitter waits patiently at the bottom of the stairs for a little boy with a pool noodle.
It is summer now. I notice how quiet it is. Even the construction is quiet. Just the rhythmic sound of a shovel in dirt.
A red church door opens, and a man in a baseball cap comes out holding a cup of coffee. He breathes in the day. So do I. Dewy sidewalk and summer leaves. Three pigeons lazily walk in an accidental row.
I turn the corner onto a busier street. A woman is sobbing in a makeshift pergola outside a closed bar, a vestige of Covid-19.
She is saying “I don’t like to make big decisions under pressure” into a phone.
We all pass by on our way to somewhere.
— Laura Eckes
Illustrated by Agnes Lee. Send submissions here and read more Metropolitan Diary here.
Glad we could get together here. See you Monday. — J.B.
P.S. Here’s today’s Mini Crossword and Spelling Bee. You can find all our puzzles here.
Ed Shanahan contributed to New York Today. You can reach the team at [email protected].
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