The Art of the Brick

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Create and

release

huGMan

One day, when I was in the first grade, every kid in

my school received a red helium balloon with a long

string tied to it and a little card attached. We were

asked to write out our school’s address on these cards

with a note reading, “Wherever this lands, please

write me back.” So we all went down to an open field.

There were three or four classes in each grade, so

easily 500 students down there, all holding these red

balloons with names, addresses, and notes. There was

a countdown, of course. Three . . . two . . . one . . .

and suddenly 500 red balloons were in the air at once,

rising up, up into the blue sky, like a great red blanket.

People say graffiti is ugly, irresponsible,

and childish. But that’s only if

it’s done properly. —Banksy

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I remember standing there, watching them disappear

into little red pinpricks. And then they were gone. We

spent the rest of the day talking about where they

might land. California, New York, Mexico, Peru?

And what I liked, and what stuck with me until years

later when I created Hugman, was this idea that you

can make something, then release it—send it off on

its own adventure from which it might, or might not,

one day return to you.

So I’ve made dozens, maybe hundreds, of Hugmen

and left them all around the world, wherever I happen

to be. I’ve left them all across the United States, in

Australia, Singapore, Taiwan. In parks, on benches,

hidden in bushes, or locked onto the wheels of parked

bicycles. I just set ’em up and leave them there. More

often than not, the Hugman lasts for just an hour

or so, a transient piece of the city’s landscape. And

then I’m like the little kid looking up at the sky and

wondering, “Where did that red balloon get to?”

Back at school, about a month after the balloon

release, one of the kids got an anonymous postcard

from a state or two away, which read, “I got your

balloon. Hi, how are you?” The principal got up in

front of the whole school and read this postcard, and

everyone just went crazy. It was the only one that

came back, but for me, that was enough.

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