Balloon artist offers a fresh twist to mall's chocolate campaign
It's somewhat confusing. Harbour City's newest promotion is a sweet-toothed art exhibit called the Chocolate Trail, but to kick it off they invited a Japanese balloon artist to demonstrate her craft. So what's the connection? As thin as it was, Rie Hosokai used a bunch of chocolate coloured balloons at the press preview last Thursday. The award-winning balloon twister will have her own display in the Gallery by the Harbour in February but the mall figured she could plug the chocolate campaign too. Hosokai made two long gowns using almost 500 little inflatable balls. She started working on them almost the minute she arrived in Hong Kong last Monday and, due to a slight snag, didn't finish them until almost the start of the press event.
'I only slept for two hours [the previous night],' Hosokai told CitySeen. She also created a box of balloon chocolates and a bouquet of balloon flowers. Sadly by the time you read this, the dresses, chocolates and flowers will have ephemerally deflated and disappeared into the balloon art abyss. 'It is quite sad that the life of these works is so short and a bit wasteful as well, but as long as they looked great for this moment it is all worth it.'
Very Japanese zen, no? Nicknamed Daisy Balloon because she used to work as a flower arranger, Hosokai admitted her work usually lasted just two days. After 12 years there's nothing she can't make with balloons. Well, except for objects with pointed ends. 'I can't make a pencil, for example,' she confessed.