The artist Jason Hackenwerth, based out of New York, has recently completed and revealed his new work, Pisces, at the Edinburgh International Science Festival within the Grand Gallery of the National Museum of Scotland. It’s fairly safe to say that this guy won’t be doing any birthday parties in the foreseeable future- but he’s certainly got something to fall back on, should the need arise.
The massive, hanging work derives its organic, twisting, helical form from the artist’s interpretation of the myth of Aphrodite and Eros and their legendary escape from Typhon. In the story, mother and son escape Mount Olympus during the monster Typhon’s assault on the home of the gods by metamorphosing into two fish tied at the tails to avoid losing one another. These two fish were later honoured by being immortalized in the heavens as the constellation Pisces- two fish twisting around each other.
Pisces consists of 10,000 balloons of multiple colours and nearly six days of inflation work by three staff members. After the balloons were blown up, the artist and his assistant Leah Blair carefully wove the latex elements into the graceful, three-dimensional form. It will be on display at the Grand Gallery through 14 April, 2013.
