Enigma Garden

2023
380×320×350cm
PVC fabric, tube

‘The Enigma’ is a vast pink floating sculpture which mimics the ‘ballonet model’ of making inner and outer bags filled with air (and in the case of airships with gas which can be inflated and deflated to control the lift). Through the semi-transparent outer layer, we are drawn around the flow of the complex intertwined pink inner tubes, reminscent of vessels, strange organs, a comforting womb. Pink is prevalent in Bao’s works for their associations with the feminine and the bodily. Starting the day as a collapsed fleshy mass, it rises into fullness as it fills with air and in doing so gives form to this invisible material. Rising to over four metres tall, it invites us to dream of lightness and floating, as its yellow tentactles dance lightly with the breeze. Bao brings together organic form and artificial material to encapsulate a compelling sense of uncertainty. We question the relationship between body and air, lightness and weight and enjoy the state of questioning.