The Bigger Than Life Team Behind Paul McCarthy’s Inflammatory Inflatables

The Team: “I am the little guy all the way on the right,” says Greg Favish, “Mark [Bachman] is the taller guy all the way on the left.” The tree on the Place Vendome was, Bachman says, “a teaser” — in a sense, an advertisement — for Chocolate Factory, ‘an installation created by McCarthy for the grand re-opening of la Monnaie de Paris’ at FIAC. (all photos courtesy Bigger Than Life unless otherwise noted)

In the last few weeks, Paul McCarthy has catapulted into the public imagination as the infamous artist firmly behind Paris’s ill-fated “Tree” (aka #pluggate). The public artwork may have attracted all types of attention for the artist’s current exhibition in Paris, Chocolate Factory, and won the support of a wide array of high-profile personalities, including the French President.

Following Hyperallergic’s coverage of “Tree,” Greg Favish, VP of Sales and Business Development for the Bigger Than Life (BTL) manufacturing company, contacted Hyperallergic to chat about the company’s proud association with the artist.

“Paul McCarthy has been a long standing client and friend of Bigger Than Life … and it was our team that he trusted to build and install this piece of artwork for the opening of his exhibit in Paris. As you are well aware the ‘Tree’ exhibit has reached momentous exposure beyond what we expected,” Favish said.

Usually called upon in the service of advertising and marketing, BTL, boasting that “no challenge is too big,” has, for the past 20 years, been making Guinness Book of World Record-sized inflatables for a myriad of brands.