Airigami: An eye-popping partnership

From wearable fashions to sculptures, Airigami takes balloon art to new heights

By Tessa Roy
Posted 2/16/17

An unlikely partnership between a graphic designer and a street performer had some rather uplifting results.

Larry Moss’s career began in 1985 when he was a street performer in New York City. …

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Airigami: An eye-popping partnership

From wearable fashions to sculptures, Airigami takes balloon art to new heights

Posted

An unlikely partnership between a graphic designer and a street performer had some rather uplifting results.

Larry Moss’s career began in 1985 when he was a street performer in New York City. While he was coming up with ways to get more people to watch his magic show, he had the idea of using balloons to attract an audience.

“As a magician, I realized the only way to make money on the street was to get bigger audiences and I needed a gimmick to draw them in. Balloons were visible,” he said.

Over time, he noticed that people seemed to be coming to the shows for the balloons rather than the magic. Thus, he put the magic aside to focus on what he could do with the balloons, perhaps not knowing that eventually, he’d have a brand new, “full blown” operation.

Years later in 2006, Moss was working on a community art project called “Balloon Manor,” a giant haunted house made of balloons. The project caught the eye of Kelly Cheatle, a former Cranston resident with a degree in graphic design from the Rochester Institute of Technology. She was amazed by Balloon Manor, but less so with the support materials and promotional posters that went along with it.

“I sent [Moss] a note and I said ‘hi, my name is Kelly Cheatle and I’m a really good graphic designer. I swear I don’t have a huge ego, but you need my help and I’m going to help you.’ And then that email changed the course of my entire life,” she said.

Their partnership went from there, and Cheatle learned quickly. Beginner balloon projects often involve learning how to make a simple balloon dog, the two said. Cheatle, however, got her start making parts to Balloon Manor.

“My first project was ‘hey can you make a skeleton?’ And I said ‘uh, sure! Why not?’” she recalls with a laugh. “It was all about getting your hands dirty and playing with the balloons and working with different material.”

The two now practice “the fine art of folding air” full time as the lead artists at Airigami, which makes large scale installations, illustrations, experiences, and sculptures entirely out of balloons. The works can be used to promote an event, or be an event in themselves - photos on their site show wearable items made for a Rochester Fashion Week, a Rochester Pride Parade, sculptures of dragons, dinosaurs, and fairy tale scenes, and illustrated recreations of famous artwork like the Girl With the Pearl Earring and the Mona Lisa.

Airigami is based in Rochester, New York, but travels around the world for its work, which has been seen everywhere from in-person events like the New York City Maker Faire to billboards in India. They’ve done so many projects that it’s hard for them to pick favorites, but Cheatle and Moss typically peg the ones the community has had a hand in or that provoke interaction as the ones they like best. Inclusiveness of their art is important to them. Balloons are essentially toys, they said, so people of all ages and backgrounds can be included when it comes to turning them into art pieces.

“Our favorites tend to be the ones that people interact with in some way, that there was more to it than just standing and looking at it being done,” Moss said. He recalls people marveling and snapping photos with the massive robot they made for the Maker Faire and a waterfall sculpture that incorporated balloon animals made by kids at their local YMCA. Airigami typically has just a few people working on a project in its studio, but when community is involved, the crew can expand to 70 or more people.

The labor Airigami’s crews put into the projects is intense, and involves more than just doing fine work with the hands. The structures they make can be as many as 40,000 balloons and as tall as five stories high (and can cost roughly $3,000 to $150,000 and up, though price is dependent upon the project), so building one requires artists to spend lots of time on their feet.

Despite all the effort it takes to build these impressive structures, Cheatle and Moss don’t lament that their work isn’t permanent; they actually prefer it that way. It’s “freeing” to have a piece temporarily exist because it lets them be more daring with their designs and more willing to make mistakes, they say, and they’d rather people remember their sculptures in their full glory rather than in a wilted mess. Plus, they love having public popping parties - at times, they stuff coupons from sponsors inside the balloons so people can get a little more “bang for their buck.” They also note that they’re proud of their small environmental footprint and use biodegradable, professional quality latex balloons that are composted when it’s time to dispose them after these poppings.

Though she’s moved on to the huge Airigami endeavor, Cheatle has not forgotten her life in Cranston. She has fond memories of living in the city and said she even looked for areas with the same “close knit, community feel” when she moved to Rochester. She also couldn’t say enough good things about Mr. Nero, her homeroom and shop teacher at Cranston West.

“He supported and encouraged us to create and be our best selves, he was truly a good guy with a great sense of humor that kept us engaged,” she said. “Now with four kids of my own in middle and high school, I understand even more how truly valuable educators are who treat their students as equals."

In addition, she’s thankful for the arts education she received at Cranston West, adding that arts are important for all students to learn.

“That arts education was truly key to my success. It makes a big difference in the way people connect with each other,” she said. “Not every kid is going to be an accountant.”

See more of Airigami’s work at www.airigami.com.

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