Alien Babe No. 3

2023
120 x 80 x 80 cm
PVC fabric, inflated swimming pool, yoga ball,
vibration machine, toys, foam clay

These trembling accumulations of commonplace
inflatable toys are teeming with absurdity. They
resemble deep-sea creatures and fantastical
aliens, as well as strange floral organisms, with their
springy, bright stamens and appendages. Each
Alien Babe contains a vibrating core, which causes
them to shake and giggle in an anthropomorphic way.
Bao uses garish, bright (and ultimately toxic) plastic to
create her shaking ecosystem of creatures. This
childish playfulness, and use of toy-like forms, is
disarming, and Bao uses this humorous moment to
foreground the tense relationship between humans
and the natural world.