the Balloon Chair by Satoshi Itasaka | click images to enlarge
In the final seen of the 1956 short film ‘The Red Balloon’ the young boy, after being chased by bullies, is rescued by a cluster of balloons. Watching him sitting down and being carried away by the balloons is enough to put a smile on anyone’s face. It was also enough to inspire Japanese designer Satoshi Itasaka to create a range of furniture based on the film.
Itasaka’s Balloon Chair is his latest work and is one that compliments his Balloon Bench, which he brought to life in 2010. Both pieces create the illusions of floatation using similar tricks: the chair is attached to a wall while the bench was suspended from a ceiling.
“The human body cannot function with the Earth’s gravity,” says Itasaka, “but the weight it places on our hearts is not something we welcome. It may seem irrational to fight gravity, but that is also a motivation for creating new things.”
If you’d like to learn more about Itasaka, he just put out a book of his work.
