Jan Hakon Erichsen
Jan Hakon Erichsen is a Norwegian contemporary artist. He is known for his short "destruction videos", often featuring balloons being popped.
Work
Erichsen has become well known for his "destruction videos", which he began making in late 2017. Now, he typically posts one video a day on Instagram. The videos most commonly depict elaborate methods of popping balloons, but other recurring themes include crushing dry pasta and taco shells, destroying household items, and wearing bizarre "hats" made from food. Items often used in the videos include balloons, dry pasta, bananas, cacti, and knives, of which Erichsen has said he owns "somewhere between 500 and 1000".Erichsen's influences include Chris Burden, 1960s and 1970s performance art, punk rock, and horror films.
In 2019, a 2-minute compilation of Erichsen's balloon popping videos went viral on Twitter, accumulating 9.5 million views in 24 hours and hundreds of thousands of likes and reetweets. He was nominated for a Shorty Award in 2020, in the category of "Best in Weird".