John McEnroe's Latest Creation

Studio Assisting For
John McEnroe
By Brittany Schall


When initially looking at John McEnroe’s work, the first two questions that crop up in ones mind are “how the?” closely followed by “what conceivable thought process brought this on?”. John McEnroe states that he is intrigued with the idea of utilizing multiple, individual components and brining them together to generate a larger unit. He was inspired to create his balloon works by looking at constructions executed out of bricks. Though singular, bricks can be amassed together to produce a chimney, wall, building, or more or less an entirely new entity. McEnroe thought it would be interesting to use this idea and manipulate the rigid format of it. What if he took an object that could be used to build something of a larger scale, but instead of adhering to a synthetic layout, he used a strategy that incorporated an organic edge? With this in mind, John started experimenting with new mediums, (a prevalent, if not dominate theme in his studio) which may possibly lend themselves to this concept.

John began conducting his experiments in an attempt to capture fluidity, mass, and volume within a unit. He wanted to be able to “freeze” these characteristics within in his works while maintaining a method that was cost effective. This led him to prosthetic panty hose, sand, and of course, McEnroe’s all familiar resin. The sand can exhibit the same visual properties of liquid while the resin is able to “fossilize” the water balloon shape. The approach is rather laborious and time intensive, but the end results are well worth it.


McEnroe starts off the process by cutting the sixteen-inch cotton panty hose in half, knotting the ends to form deflated lithe white sacs. Then McEnroe’s next phase is to “milk it” as he calls it. Decoded, this means that he takes a bendable plastic hose attached to a large funnel filled with sand, bends it just so to let the sand flow. The sac quickly engorges into a rather phallic form, it does not help that the panty hose is a medical white. Chuckling, John snickers out that this is animal husbandry at its finest. Once full, the plastic tube is kinked closed and the “balloon” is tied off and slumped into a pile with the rest.

This process continues for an hour or so until enough cycles have produced a sizable mound of balloons. This rudimentary, but relatively effect method, is not without a few flaws. Occasionally, “bleeders” as McEnroe refers to them, occur from time to time. This is when a run or a small whole in the panty hose is present, sand spurts out of this opening, deflating the bag. Before it completely empties, it is hoisted back over the funnel and the sand is emptied into it so it is not a complete waste of manpower. Outside of this refilling method, the funnel maintains its steady fill of sand by having bucket after bucket of sand poured into it. Needless to say, at the end of the day everyone in the studio has raw knuckles and rug burned fingertips.

After the process of filling the bags is complete, the amusing compositional phase begins. The bags are stacked and arranged on top of one another; both aesthetics and physics are employed to create both a functional and visually interesting assemblage. This process can pull the strings of everyone’s seventh grade humor as much as, or even more so, than the “milking” imagery of the sacs being filled. Not only can the bags summon phallic likenesses now; breasts, intestines, and feces can be added to the list as well. Thankfully, the bags positioning is reworked several times to edit out these uncouth visual parallels. Sometimes without warning, the bags chose to rearrange themselves. This leaves everyone dodging the raining array of hospital white prosthetic panty hose sacks. One of the main culprits to this catastrophe can be attributed to the “bleeders”. As the sand leaks out of one, the rest of the bags begin to resettle into an unstable construction around it. Occasionally, the antagonist sack(s) can be caught before it sends all of the rest toppling down. In the case where prevention fails, an entire days work can be easily lost and the “balloons” fall from their positions and gloriously exploded onto the floor several feet below.

After the bags are rearranged and the devistation of any of the disasters have been cleared away, the next stage commences: resin. Gloppy containers are mixed and the race to cover the bags with as much fiberglass possible before the resin sets begins. It is imperative to get the entire structure covered so it can support the next installment of “balloons” that will be placed on top. As it dries, the nylon is broken down and absorbed into the fiberglass along with a few millimeters of the sand. The end result is an incredibly sturdy foundation of biomorphic components where no two sacks are alike.

The freshly resined section of the sculpture is then hoisted off the completed stack and placed in another section of the studio. McEnroe crawls into the beehive like formation and cuts away at the remaining parts of the bags, leaving only a hollow half shell. Subsequent to this, he then resins weak spots on the inside of the sculpture for too reasons. To begin with, the most obvious reason for this is to reinforce the construction so it can support the next wave of sacks. Secondly, this “spot treatment” will prevent any awkward light peeping through the final internally lit sculpture. During this process, it is important to be wary of what John likes to call “meat hooks”. This is where pieces of stubborn fiberglass fail to lie flat, resulting in shards of glass poking outward. These meat hooks can then become problematic when you are shimming in and out of the narrow encasement. Suddenly shirts can be reduced to rags for the car and images of the iron maiden are summoned as you are unexpectedly gouged. McEnroe jokes that his process would make for a perfect submission for Discovery Channel’s “Dirty Jobs” hit television show.


Once this intense phase is concluded, the “shell” is hoisted back onto the completed sections of the sculpture. The whole cycle begins again, each time the bags are arranged to slowly converge into a point. The work will be finally topped off and painted a luscious, if not rouge red. An organic obelisk has materialized that conveys an in depth sense of space, weight, and movement. This splendid piece of conceptual art will be seen in full glory by being placed on a six feet tall pedestal on the Highlands Pedestrian Bridge walkway that crosses over I-25 and 16th Street. At night, the monolithic sculpture will serve as a visual beacon as the pulsing red “balloons” will be magnificently lit from the interior. One can only wait with anticipation for this public work to reach the end of its long road and it is displayed for the public’s enjoyment and amazement.