“Killed By A Bouncy Castle” screams the front pages of a few newspapers today.
I’m not sure which I’m more appalled by: the horrific, Ian McEwan-like event itself; or the fact that it’s considered to be more newsworthy than the Israeli-Lebanon crisis. Though I can see the tabloid editors’ point: the mass killing of innocents in the Middle East is a more depressingly common story than the surreal terror of this unlikely new accident.
Or that the artist Maurice Agis’s signature ‘Dreamspace’ installation, developed over a lifetime through various incarnations, has not only received its zenith of publicity as a result of this tragedy – but to add insult to actual injury, they’re calling it a bouncy castle. That most tacky of summer attractions.
Thousands of people who have visited Mr Agis’s installations over the decades – which were all based on the same sort of ‘colour maze’ theme – know that Dreamspace is not only far from being a simple ‘bouncy castle’, but is part of a famous, enduring and popular series of artworks.
I recall his previous, more simple installations, called “Colourspace”. One of them turned up at the Puffin Show at the Commonwealth Institute in Kensington, in 1981. I visited it a few times later, never tiring of wandering around the peaceful, ambient landspace of this unique multicoloured labyrinth. Colourspace was a regular feature of London summers, pitched at festivals or in the grounds of museums.
In the early 90s, the band Pulp filmed their ‘Lipgloss’ video inside one of the Colourspaces. It’s on You Tube, naturally. When I first saw the video, I recognised Mr Agis’s work then, as I do now, despite the ‘bouncy castle’ tag.
The BBC news site has ominous amateur camera footage of the accident – the enormous maze inverting into the sky, folding, toppling. Dreamspace: The Pop Art Hindenburg.
