Scott King
A Balloon for America
4 Sep 2013
Bortolami

1/5

Scott King, Scott King: A Balloon for America, Installation view, Bortolami Gallery, New York, NY, 2013

This series, which follows A Balloon for Britain, depicts brightly colored party balloons over found images of ten of the United States' poorest cities: Detroit, Buffalo, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Miami, St. Louis, El Paso, Milwaukee, Philadelphia and Newark. King imagined himself as part of a government think-tank that has been given the task of reinvigorating these cities and 'creating happiness and hope and joy where there is none.' These works, initiated as public art proposals, are King's logical solution to the ineffectual ideas that governments implement when they deploy art in the hope of regenerating depressed areas. While this is a common tactic in the UK, for example Anish Kapoor's imposing sculptures in the post - industrial north of England, it is what is often referred to as a 'Band Aid Solution.'