The Big Umbrella, twice the radius of the biggest men’s umbrella on the market, was designed to shield up to 16 people from the rain. It was a cheerful and simply idyllic structure, but did 16 people want to crowd together to avoid getting wet ? Does bad weather affect people differently in different parts of the world ? To find out, I took my big umbrella on the road between 2003-2004, visiting Paris, London, Dresden, Copenhagen, New York and Martinique.
Traveling the world with a familiar object of uncanny proportions can have some unexpected effects. While the Big Umbrella proved useful as a tool for plucking down stray balls from trees, its unwieldy size on busy streets turned altruistic motives into harassment. Providing a shelter, it brought some strangers momentarily together, while alienating others, and in its most salient moments, simply aplified the solitude of the bearer. A. M.
© 2007 Aleksandra Mir, Galerie Laurent Godin, onestar press
