Cherophobia is a 48-hour durational living installation by Noëmi Lakmaier. It is an attempt to lift the artist’s bound and immobilised body off the ground using 20,000 helium party balloons.
Commissioned by Unlimited, a festival celebrating extraordinary new works by disabled and deaf artists, Cherophobia invites viewers to observe as balloons are inflated and attached by a team of assistants, as Lakmaier is suspended in the air. The performance will be broadcast live from St Leonard’s church in Shoreditch, London to the Southbank Centre and venues across the UK and internationally. We will be screening it live in the Studio cafe at Newlyn Art Gallery, from 12pm on Wednesday 7th September.
Cherophobia is a performance and a gathering, a one-off event that intertwines people in their shared suspense and anticipation. It takes its title from a psychiatric condition, defined as ‘an exaggerated or irrational fear of gaiety or happiness’.