trampoline color exercise lights up times square
Yuge Zhou’s hypnotic work Trampoline Color Exercise takes over 95 billboards in New York City’s Times Square. The moving-image collage depicts leaping gymnasts whose uniforms and identities shapeshift as they flip and tumble on pink gridded trampolines. Created by manipulating aerial vantage points from archival broadcasts of Olympic Games footage, the artwork is a bird’s-eye meditation on the human form and the athletic pursuit of perfection. The mass of figures also reads as an abstract play of primary colors — a timely yet subtle nod to global national flags and fluctuating affiliations in an ever-changing geopolitical climate.
all images by Michael Hull unless stated otherwise
yuge zhou considers complexities of allegiance
Yuge Zhou left her hometown of Beijing for the United States right around the time of the 2008 Olympic games – a monumental event for China. The artist began conceptualizing Trampoline Color Exercise between 2021 and 2024, a period marked by intense political and international divisions. Drawing from personal memories of watching the Olympic Games as a family ritual, being captivated by the athletes’ pursuit of perfection as well as the powerful symbolism of individuals representing their nations, competing on a shared global stage. ‘The Olympics, to me, have always mirrored the dynamics of international relations, especially the tensions and rivalries between global superpowers,’ Zhou notes.
She revisits the visual language of athleticism and pageantry, using it as a lens to explore shifting ideologies and cultural identities. The Olympics, long viewed as a stage for both collaboration and rivalry between nations, here become a symbolic terrain for examining the complexities of allegiance. Working with archival Olympic footage as the starting point, Zhou extracted aerial views of athletes mid-performance and reassembled them into a dynamic visual field as they’re leaping and tumbling on pink gridded trampolines. Their uniforms and identities change as they move across a shifting tapestry of motion and color. Collectively, the mass of figures becomes an abstract composition of primary colors — subtly evoking the national flags of countries that have played outsized roles in shaping recent geopolitical events. The work is currently on view as part of the Midnight Moment program presented by Times Square Arts, the world’s largest public art venue, and plays nightly from 11:57 PM to midnight through June 30th.
Yuge Zhou unveils Trampoline Color Exercise
the hypnotic work takes over 95 billboards in New York City’s Times Square
image by DeShaun Craddock
created by manipulating aerial vantage points from archival broadcasts of Olympic Games footage
the artwork is a bird’s-eye meditation on the human form and the athletic pursuit of perfection
Zhou extracted aerial views of athletes mid-performance and reassembled them into a dynamic visual field
the work is on view as part of the Midnight Moment program presented by Times Square Arts
project info:
name: Trampoline Color Exercise
artist: Yuge Zhou | @yugezhou
designboom has received this project from our DIY submissions feature, where we welcome our readers to submit their own work for publication. see more project submissions from our readers here.
edited by: ravail khan | designboom
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