Monumental balloon by Anish Kapoor in Paris show

[May 11, 2011]  PARIS (AP) -- A blood-colored, globulous balloon ensconced in Paris' Grand Palais seems to suck you into its vortex as you lose your sense of balance. And that's not such a bad thing.

The city's latest monumental exhibit, by Anish Kapoor, is at once enveloping and vertigo-inducing, and as often with the outspoken British artist, political. Kapoor dedicated it to jailed Chinese artist Ai Weiwei.

"Leviathan," which opened Wednesday and runs through June 23, really is just one 75,000-cubic-meter balloon filling up much of the art nouveau, glass-roofed Grand Palais. Its "skin" is PVC vinyl, barely thicker than the skin of a toy balloon. Its four orbs are sustained by fans pumping whooshes of air that become the exhibit's soundtrack.

[Associated Press]

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