JIMMY KUEHNLE

It has been two and a half years since I visited Japan and just as long since I spent time with my old friend Kjell Hahn. He has a new studio set up in Onishi, a little town that is now part of Fujioka in Gunma-ken. The studio is an old two story building thatContinue Reading

Behind the inflatable suit that I am wearing is the studio at Sculpture Space in Utica, New York. This new piece is called Make it Look Rich and currently in a testing phase. After some adjustments and repairs, this suit will be heading out into the world. I wanted to make an inflatable suit thatContinue Reading

The new suit will have arrows of different sizes. Here are two little red arrows still with the wrong sides of the fabric out. The seam allowances are visible.

The new suit will sport big yellow letters as well as some large arrows. Tomorrow I trek to Grand Rapids to install work at the Old Federal Building as part of the upcoming ArtPrize competition. There is also a preview event from 5:00 to 8:00 at the same location. As the PR says: Be theContinue Reading

After setting my studio up at Albion College, I got to work designing a new inflatable suit. This suit will have some large inflatable arrows made from pink nylon. Above is a small preview of a preliminary sketch for the suit. As details get finalized and fabricated I will post more pictures.

After returning from Finland and a nice summer break in St. Louis, I am back. This time I am at Albion College in Albion, Michigan. For the fall semester I will be a resident artist here at the college. Today I began to move stuff into the studio. While setting up my second welding studioContinue Reading

Those forty two purple squares are now sewn to the ends of orange tubes. Now I am entering the final stages of fabrication. My goal is to finish this weekend. If do not encounter any unforeseen problems and sew into the night I should be able to complete it in time.

The suit I am working on will have lots of orange tubes with squares on their ends. Some of the squares will be pink and about forty two will be purple. Each tube – square assembly consists of seven pieces of fabric and therefore takes a bit of time to sew. I have most ofContinue Reading

It might not resemble much now, but this is the new cockpit for my next inflatable suit. The backpack harness is installed in the back. Two fan ports sit in the pink fabric in the front. Now that the cockpit is finished I can build around this foundation to complete the suit. The orange tubesContinue Reading

Sewing together inflatables requires a lot of planning. For my new work I have finished most of the planning and have transitioned into fabrication. This new work will be purple, orange and pink. It resembles a pile of fabric now but soon it will be roaming the streets of Vaasa.