The Four Wise Cattle are four living, breathing, inflatable creatures destined to roam the streets and parks of New York City. The Cattle were finalists in the 2017 Folly/Function competition to design a shading structure for Socrates Sculpture Park. Despite lack of funding, we designed and fabricated slightly smaller versions of the cattle to fulfill our curiosity. 74 yards of ripstop nylon were cut, dyed, and sewn in our small Brooklyn apartments. Each cattle is inflated with a constant stream of air from a blower fan – standing from seven to fourteen feet tall.

An ongoing project, the creatures visited rooftops, apartments, and backyard parties. We learned that no matter how they squeeze or situate themselves, the cattle are always met with curiosity and enthusiasm – their scale is welcomed, not feared. Our ambition is to continue the inflated adventure and bring the cattle to parks and public spaces to engage with the people of New York (and beyond)!

Though they are ready to wander, the cattle are limited by the hardware that allows them to inflate whenever or wherever. We have one household blower and an antique blower. Both are capable of inflating a cattle, but one, not quite finger friendly. With the Awesome Grant, we will buy the additional three fans as well as a portable power source to finally liberate the cattle from a wall outlet. In addition to the fans and battery, we will purchase additional fabric and dye to make new cattle as an addition to the Cattle family.
With the help of the Awesome Grant, we can finally release the four wise cattle to wander and bring curiosity and spontaneous joy to the people of New York.

You can follow the cattle adventures on the artists' instagrams at https://instagram.com/karynaroo/ and https://instagram.com/mzlotsky/