David Cross - Pump, 2009

I first encountered an image of this piece in a printed advertisement for the artist's university's art program and was struck by the similarity to my box piece.  Having fallen in love with inflation as a metaphor and as a strategy to activate the viewer when I first saw images of Lee Bul's Hydra II (Monument), 1999, I naturally loved Cross's use.

All images, video and quotes are from his website:

David Cross is an artist, writer and curator based in Wellington, New Zealand

Working across performance, installation, video and photography, Cross has focused on the relationship between pleasure, the grotesque and the phobic.  His small to large-scale performance/installation work has sought to incorporate and extend contemporary thinking in relation to participation, linking performance art with object-based environments.  Often using his own body as a starting point, he employs a range of objects--many of which are inflatable--to draw audiences into potentially unexpected situations and dialogues.

Pump is a performance that examines how small-scale sculptural objects might be utilised to draw strangers into a curious dialogue.  The pump powered yellow inflatable operates as a kind of push-me-pull-you with two identical openings for the performer and the audience member to place their heads in.  Both are visible to one another through a single viewing tunnel that reveals little more than each others [sic] right eye.  To maintain the structure, performer and audience member need to come to a silent accomodation about pumping.  The performance lasts for as long as the performer can maintain inflation.