Street Talk: Nam, Yu and Yung
Every kid likes balloon animals, but not many grow up and turn balloon art into a full time job. But that’s exactly what siblings Nam, Yu and Yung (left to right) have done by setting up Miracle Atelier Company, which creates huge-scale balloon sculptures. They talk to Katie Chan about their love of inflatables.
HK Magazine: How did you become interested in balloon art?
Nam, Yu and Yung: We started off as magicians and mainly did performances at children’s birthday parties. The kids’ parents started coming up to us and requested more unusual balloon sculpture shapes, besides swords and bunnies. We started exploring different balloon sculpture techniques and even went to Japan to learn professional techniques from famous balloon artist Daisy [Rei Hosokai].
HK: What is it that you enjoy about balloon art?
NYY: We like the fact that balloons have a limited life expectancy, so if you want your creation to last longer, then you will have to finish it quickly. In a way, it’s a constant race against time and a challenge too because we know that our sculptures are
all temporary.
HK: What are the things you have to be aware of when twisting balloons?
NYY: The balloons we use are known as magic balloons; they are slightly thicker and can be 20 inch long when completely blown up. The amount of air it holds varies depending on the design and size of your sculpture because each one is unique and requires different knots. We will also use a combination of twists when making our art sculptures, some of the basic ones are loop, ear and apple twists.
HK: What else can you make with balloons?
NYY: Anything you like—just be creative. We think that the majority of things could be made or at least attempted. Obviously there will be lots of failures. Once, we tried to make a lemon, but that didn’t quite work out.
HK: What difficulties do you come across?
NYY: Not being able to sleep once we get started because we need to finish a sculpture in the shortest amount of time possible. Also, it can take a lot of energy out of you because balloon twisting requires strength to be able to form the balloon into a certain position, that’s why sometimes girls struggle slightly.
HK: What happens when the balloons pop? Is there a special way of fixing it?
NYY: There’s always the possibility, but because we structure the sculpture in a certain way, when one balloon pops we can just replace the one instead of re-doing the whole thing. You do need good repair skills though to be able to hide the old balloons.