The inflatable art of Detroit artist Sean Hages fills the Lincoln Ballroom April 23 during an April Arts Dearborn event at the Ford Community & Performing Arts Center.
By SUE SUCHYTA
Times-Herald Newspapers
DEARBORN – The bright-colored, inflatable art of Detroit artist Sean Hages dominated the Lincoln Ballroom with whimsical shapes April 23 during April Arts month at the Ford Community & Performing Arts Center.
Hages, 43, said the collection of forced air inflatables on display were made for different events over the years and are usually displayed outdoors.
He said the decision to create inflatable art was a pragmatic decision.
“I didn’t have a lot of equipment or employees or anything, so I was doing art for an Electronic Music Festival and I needed a way to make big art that I could do without a big studio or a truck or a crane,” Hages said. “So, I was just making all this stuff in the kitchen and it went into my Ford Taurus.”
He said most of the fabric is ripstop nylon, while some of the fabric is from Cameron Balloons in Dexter, which manufactures hot air balloons.
“I buy some of the fabric that they can’t use in the hot air balloons, or if they have a lot of scraps, I will take those, too,” Hages said. “They donate them to artists and the community usually.”
He said creating the dimensions of an inflatable is subject to trial and error.
“I experiment each time, try new things,” Hages said.
He said one bright pink commission came with the request that people be able to go inside of the inflatable art. When done, it was double-walled and provided a definite learning experience.
Hages said with inflatables, you are allowing a little less air than you are putting in to escape, otherwise it will rip and explode.
“So, you don’t have to seal the seams or anything,” he said.
Hages said people respond to the scale of the work.
“I think people really respond to how these will just appear,” he said with a smile.
Hages said children often expect the inflatable art to be a bounce house when the first see it.
His daughter Grace Hages, 16, helps with the logistics of setting up and taking down inflatable art displays.
An artist herself, she is currently exploring different forms of expression.
Grace said inflatable art brings to mind an alternative universe.
“It feels like I am on an alien planet with weird plants,” she said. “It’s all trippy.”
Hages said the inflatable art on display in the Lincoln Balloon represented about half of his collection.
He said while some of his inflatable art has been commissioned and fabricated for permanent installation, the medium primarily lends itself to temporary displays.
“It’s mostly been parties and festivals,” Hages said. “They’ve got that exciting kind of art to them, and usually the venues are stimulating.”
Sudden wind gusts pose a challenge during outdoor displays, and he said some pieces have been ruined.
Hages said engineering skill is as important to his displays as the artistic element.
“There is no book that I know of on how to make inflatables,” he said. “I have had to try to figure out a lot of stuff over the years to fight the wind and the over-eager bounce house kids.”
Hages said he loves it when people take photos in front of his inflatable art.
“I love that when people insert themselves into the alien environment,” he said. “They become part of the thing and I think that participation is beyond just touching — it’s existing in the space with the work.”
For more information about the artist and his work, go to seanhages.com.
Detroit artist Sean Hages (right) and his daughter Grace pose by his inflatable art April 23 in the Lincoln Ballroom during an April Arts Dearborn event at the Ford Community & Performing Arts Center.