Rising up, carried by the wind, day and night, the balloon is a happy nomad, travelling across the landscape, before it meets up with its free-floating companions.
Paper artist Chisato Tamabayashi’s pop-up book, Airborne, tells the story, without using words, of a hot air balloon floating across the countryside.
The simplicity of design made the book the perfect artwork to project the Museum of Imagined Kent’s message onto: whilst we imply the river depicted is the River Medway, it could equally be anywhere, either here in the UK or in Japan. Through the balloon crossing the river, we explore the idea of ‘translation’ as the moving from one place to another, and how translation can lead to change. In this way, Airborne helped to illustrate both the similarities between Kent and Japan, and also how meanings can get muddled – how can you trust a label telling you this book definitely represents the Kentish countryside?
London-based Tamabayashi is inspired by traditional Japanese art and craft. Her pop-up books have links to the craft of kirigami, a variation of origami, where the paper is cut as well as folded. Each page explores different techniques elements that, amongst others, pop up, fan out, and can be controlled using paper strips.
The balloon links the work perfectly to Mitsumasa Anno’s picturebook My Journey, where a red balloon is seen moving through the world, hovering over the countryside on every page. In both cases, their minimalistic representation of the countryside helps us to tie these books to Kent, and draw connections between the county and Japanese art and culture.
See more of Chisato Tamabayshi’s works here
Learn more about kirigami here