Saturday 2 June 2012

Florentijn Hofman

Ran into the inimitable work of the brilliant Florentijn Hofman on top of the Tadao Ando designed Hyogo Museum today. Hofman needs no introduction to the people of Osaka -- his gorgeous rubber duck has made two appearances in the canals of Kansai for the Osaka Canvas Project.
I feel that a lot of inflatable art seems to be more about artist megalomania than anything else, (and ends up looking like a cheap bouncy castle at a redneck county fair) but Hofman really brings a new dimension to his work by challenging the notion of public space and how we perceive it. I was fortunate to be working on the Canvas project, and was able to see his work and the people's reaction to it -- it was a huge success.  Another interesting aspect of his work is that it travels, but the design of the duck is subtly different according to the country. The duck in Osaka is perfectly kawaii, even though I presume the specs are the same. Check out his work:www.florentijnhofman.nl