Philippe Parreno first made his helium Speech Bubbles for a labor union protest in France. The first in the series Speech Bubbles (White), 1997, were white foil balloons shaped as speech bubbles, typically drawn in comic books, that he made intending to have writing on them. He envisioned that each protester could write their own slogans on the balloon and yet be united by the balloons. While this action did not take place, the association with unspoken thoughts or discussions remain. The balloons are filled with helium and always hover under the ceiling of the room they are installed in. Parreno has often referred them as being filled with words which are waiting to come out. As they jostle, waiting for their message to come to them, they occupy a space between announcement and silence. The balloons are made from Mylar and the number of speech bubbles installed is determined by the size of the room, as the ceiling should be completely covered by the balloons. The use of helium Mylar balloons is a clear reference both to Andy Warhol’s Silver Clouds (1966) and to Magi© Bullet (1992) a work by Canadian artist group General Idea.

By 1997 when Parreno first exhibited Speech Bubbles (White) he had included the motif of balloons into his exhibitions numerous times. The balloon’s association with childhood and festivity along with their often unpredictable movements gave a touch of playfulness to his exhibitions. They also contribute to his resistance to traditional exhibition formats.

Parreno has subsequently made Speech Bubbles in black (2007), gold (2009), silver (2009), red (2010), blue sky (2012), violet (2015), green (2015), fuchsia (2015), transparent (2016), transparent yellow (2016), transparent blue (2016), transparent orange (2016), and transparent red (2017).

The Speech Bubbles (Transparent Orange) are particularly important as they refer back to two solo shows by Parreno: the show at Museum of Modern Art in Paris (2002) and the Irish Museum of Modern Art (2007). In both of these exhibitions Parreno coloured the windows of the museum with an orange filter, calling the installation Orange Bay. The colour Orange Bay is taken from the book The Underground Man, a late 19-century novel by French sociologist Gabriel de Tarde about the apocalypse of the earth. In the novel mankind are driven underground by the extinction of the sun. They use sodium lights as their only light source underground, therefore their lives become bathed in these ‘orange suns’. 

Previous versions of Philippe’s Speech Bubbles that are held in institutional collections include: Speech Bubbles (White), 1997 - Collection Fonds Régional d’Art Contemporain Nord - Pas de Calais, Dunkerque; and Speech Bubbles (Black), 2007 - Collection Fondation Louis Vuitton Pour La Création.