Hans Hemmert und Linda and the Funky Boys shame on you is a humorous music video from 1998 featuring artist Hans Hemmert dancing inside one of his signature large, yellow balloons to the upbeat song “Shame on You” by Linda Fields featuring the Funky Boys. The dance lasts for the duration of the song – a total of nearly four and a half minutes – and takes place in a nondescript, white-walled space where the emphasis is entirely on the dancing subject. The oval-shaped balloon moves forward and backwards and side to side, revealing Hemmert’s hands, feet, and face behind the surface at various times, depending on the direction of the balloon’s movement. The humorous effect of the awkwardly tipping, opaque, bulbous balloon is a hallmark of Hemmert’s practice, which deals with space, perception, and nontraditional material use. It was in 1998 that Hemmert first utilized a human-sized balloon for his art projects; images of the artist inside a balloon similar to the one in the video, while holding his infant daughter outside the balloon, brought attention to his use of this material and the resulting image-making possibilities. Hans Hemmert und Linda and the Funky Boys is a prime example of the artist’s work from the late 1990s, the peak of his large balloon experimentation.
