Why Being 5 Years Old is Super On-Trend in the Art World
Important announcement!
We think you should know that there's an artsycoolhip way to escape adulting: playing in jungle gyms disguised as art installations.
Several artists have dedicated themselves to creating the most beautiful jungle gyms you ever did see, all because the kind souls hope to bring the joy of being 5 - and not having to worry about anything apart from a knee scab or peeing our pants - back into our lives.
Check out the work of design group Numen:
Net Blow Up. Courtesy of Numen, www.numen.eu
Net Blow Up. Courtesy of Numen, www.numen.eu
Net Blow Up. Courtesy of Numen, www.numen.eu
Net Blow Up. Courtesy of Numen, www.numen.eu
Net Blow Up. Courtesy of Numen, www.numen.eu
Net Blow Up, above, is actually a giant inflatable white structure - aka a giant white beach ball - that guests have the pleasure of entering and playing inside of. The blow up ball was first seen in Yokohama, Japan in 2013.
Courtesy of Numen, www.numen.eu
Courtesy of Numen, www.numen.eu
Courtesy of Numen, www.numen.eu
Numen didn't stop there - above are Net Hasselt in Hasselt, Belgium and a few more of their contraptions in unidentified spots. They've been planting these black netted playgrounds across Europe and Asia over the past few years - most recently, a large tube in Innsbruck. Gotta catch 'em all.
Wonder Space II, by Toshiko Horiuchi MacAdam. Photo © Masaki Koizum.
On another world tour making knitted playground fantasies come true is Toshiko Horiuchi MacAdam, a Canadian artist with installations geared toward children, but enticing to all. Harmonic Motion is a rainbow paradise that was featured in the Hakone Open Air Museum in Japan in 2015. Now it's been hitting cities like Rome, Paris, and Hong Kong.
And finally, we have the work of Ernesto Neto. Yes, NETO. (Which do you think came first, the name or the obsession with nets?)
Ever since his interactive art was featured in the renown Centre Pompidou in Paris, installations have been popping up in Tokyo, Boston, and beyond. Just turn to Google and find the cluster of squishy hammock pods, maze of floating knit tunnels, or forest of pantyhose-covered blobs nearest you.
So tell us, is this obsession with netted jungle gyms a coincidence? A phenomenon? A sign of the times?
Whatever it is, we think it's grand.
