We went to the 🎈Balloon Museum: Let's Fly Dallas🎈 after lunch on the first day we were on our trip. It was a Tuesday around 3pm. Taking vacation in the middle of the week with no other public or school holidays is my absolute favorite! Besides us, there was only a pair of teens, another couple, and like 2 or 3 families at the art exhibit, and we all came in staggered times, so we had each of the rooms (mostly) to ourselves. Although, ironically, I kind of wish there was another couple or two with us in some of the rooms because several of the immersive activities were for multiple people, so it was hard for me to play by myself (Wes was too cool to join in 😒). Each room housed a balloon and/or air themed installation. I took pictures of each one with descriptions below, except for 3 - a VR video we watched (there was nothing to take a picture of), the one above of the inflatable polygons (it was pretty boring), and a room with an upside-down red tree (also boring).
MY FAVORITE!!! OMG
The first room we entered was the best. It was a tunnel of mirrors with changing colors. I could have stood in there forever; so so pretty!!😍 Like, how do I get one of these installed at home? LOL The swirling lights were made by AI using tons of data from Excel spreadsheets. I texted my boss & coworker that I literally can't get away from Excel, not even on vacation! LOL
The next room was pretty disappointing after the light tunnel. It was a giant Fleur de Lis with a kaleidoscope in the background. The kaleidoscope was made from images of naked dolls and the placard read that it symbolizes how the artist is truly exposed when we view her art.
As weird as the Fleur de Lis room was, the next one was the worst. 😑 I mean, the art was cool but the concept behind it was a bit creepy. It was a humungous disco ball that slowly inflated and deflated. It looked really neat and the entire room reflected it's light. The creepy part is that it represents the female orgasm. The artist said, Her Joy, over & over again and it played out of a speaker at the base of the ball. The tone and inflection of the words elongated as the ball inflated & deflated. The speaker was loud so we heard it the next few rooms, too. It felt like we stumbled into someone else's intimate moment and really should go, but we couldn't leave.
Next, we walked into a plain room with some cartoon faces. We were meant to feel small amongst the giant smiles. The ceiling was domed inward to make the illusion work. 👀 An aside, I am the very slow and annoying museum goer who reads each placard, which is why I remember all the artists' intents and concepts behind each room. I won't read it if the art is self-explanatory, but I definitely will with this contemporary stuff.
The next room reminded me of Yayoi Kusama's work, and I was really glad to get into a room that I enjoyed. (I wasn't impressed with anything we saw after the initial light tunnel, and I started to worry this was a waste of our afternoon.) I loved the feeling of standing in the middle of the glass balls; I must just like anything with mirrors. 😀 I think it was after this that we went into the VR room. We watched a video where we flew through Balloon Land (it reminded me of the Candyland boardgame) with inflatable versions of landmarks like the Eiffel Tower, and I think at one point, the Queen ate us. LOL The rest of the rooms were great, and the immersive/interactive part of the exhibits really ramped up. Oh, and I think the room after this was the first one where you could no longer hear the Her Joy orgasm blaring in the background. Yay!🎉
🦋There was a giant LED butterfly hanging from the ceiling in the next room. You had to sit on a bench with some buddies and swing to light up the butterfly and make its wings flap & change colors. Wes wasn't super into it (or in to this this part of our trip in general) but I couldn't operate the butterfly by myself, so he had to help. There were lots of patchwork pillows scattered around for spectators to lay back and watch the butterfly take flight. Since we were the only ones in the room, we couldn't swing and watch, so we skipped the watching part.
The next room had a row of giant inner tubes and nothing else; it was completely white with some gentle music in the background. 🩰The artist described it as a "mesmerizing ballet", which sounds ridiculous, but I felt it. The inner tubes slowly undulated with the music. It was really simple but one of my favorite rooms in the museum.
After the peaceful tardigrade dance, we moved into a room of chaos. 😲This was the first room where I wished to discard my introvert ways and play with strangers. LOL The room had an extremely large beach ball with charcoal nibs sticking out. The point was the work as a team to guide the ball around and draw a picture. I was wearing a white shirt (that I sewed myself 💅) so I probably shouldn't have been playing with charcoal, but the museum employee told me there was a wash station right outside this room. Wes didn't want to play so I was on my own. The walls and ceiling were completely marked so I wanted to draw my picture on the floor.✎ It took a lot of effort to bounce the ball all the way down, but I managed a couple of lines. LOL
An inflatable city was in the next room, or at least what the artist imagined an inflatable city would look like. 🏨We were encouraged to walk around, over and under all the "buildings". I liked the colors & geometric patterns, and the eyes were cool, but this probably isn't a city I'd move to. LOL The tunnel out of the city lead to one of those desk perpetual motion machines, like the one with the balls that swing back & forth.
I really wished I had someone else to play with in this room because I couldn't push all the balls in time to get their perpetual motion thing going. 🏃I ran around like a madwoman swinging them all but couldn't manage it.🏃 Right as I was leaving, a small child & her mom came in. I almost went back to see if the mom would help me but I was also afraid that all the balls I left wildly swinging in there would knock over her child, so I quickly fled the scene. 😰
I brought home a pink souvenir Ginjo magnet. She lives on our fridge now with all our other travel trinkets.
Next, we entered the alien land of Ginjos. Their giant eyes followed us as we walked around their whimsical land. 👀 They were made from those stand-up punching bags so they wobbled about as we walked by. Wes noticed that the mural on the wall was one continuous painting. I assumed that it looped around but all four walls were different. Wes said this was the only exhibit that he actually felt "immersed" in. I, on the other hand, am a sucker and eat this stuff up.
The next room was a cyclone.🌪 I didn't get it at first because we walked in right after one ended and before it started up again. The balloons started swirling and flying all over the small room! I know it was just balloons and air, but the effect of them combined with how small the room is was just so neat!😲 Wes told me to walk right in the middle of it for a perfect photo op (ok, I came up with the photo op part, but don't I look cool in the top left picture!) Wes really doesn't like installation, contemporary, or immersive art but when pressed, he did admit that this room was his favorite.
After we left the cyclone, we walked down a long hallway to the grand finale! It was an enormous ball pit with strobe lights & disco balls that flashed in a light show every 10 minutes ❤ I am an only child so I'm used to playing by myself, and am comfortable in my own company, but man, did I wish for some friends to frolic around in this with me; in fairness, Wes was a good sport and did jump in for a bit. Regardless, I still had a blast wading through the balls, tossing them in time with the lights, and laying back to watch the show.
The reason why I decided on Dallas in March was for the International Surrealism exhibit at the art museum. The starfish wearing the high heel was my favorite piece in the collection. 👠 The other 4 paintings were also super neat!
The other museum we went to, while still my idea, was more Wes's style. The next morning, we headed downtown for the Dallas Museum of Art (with no pretend resident discount 😒). There were two temporary exhibits that I wanted to see - International Surrealism (Wes was actually pretty excited for this one, too) and Constellations (contemporary jewelry). Our tactic of going on a weekday completely backfired on us, as it must have been school field trip day. The museum was overrun by teens😖; there was probably at least 2 or 3 high schools there. Luckily, they were all behaved and old enough to have assignments so instead of running around, they were walking with their teachers and completing their worksheets.
We headed into International Surrealism first. 😵 Salvador Dalí is the only Surrealist I am familiar with, but I like the movement so I knew I had to know some other artists. I didn't see anything familiar until I saw the Miró. Wes likes André Masson, and there was a couple of his works on display, too. Hard to see in the picture above, but his drawing of the hand holding the mermaids is a good one.
🎨 I won't ramble on about the Surrealists and how much I admire their imagination and ability to literally paint their random scattered thoughts, so above are some more works and we'll move onto the next exhibit.💍 Actually, just as we were about to walk into the jewelry room, a huge group of students went in... so we veered away and revisited some of our other friends at the museum.
Wes & I have been watching the Lost Treasures of Egypt on Disney+ so it was cool to see the artifacts here on display and kind of know a little bit about how the archeologists come to find and study them.
