"Bubbles, The Universe is My Home," an Allison Rentz performance installation in the Existing Conditions show at Eyedrum (8.15.14). Video by Hormuz Minina, and Andy Imm is inside the bubble. Special thanks goes to Princess Jones for her installation assistance.

About the piece:

I found out a couple of weeks ago that my ex recently died of lung cancer, but he wasn't a smoker, and he was only 39. This has made me hyper aware of indoor air pollution, especially since we lived for many years in a space that was probably unsafe. While I was touring the parts of the new Eyedrum building that haven’t been renovated yet, I was super grossed out and I felt compelled to protect the audience from the possible threats to their health. The wood frame with the circle cutout commanded me to put something in it, and an act of bibliomancy cemented this protective bubble idea for me. The book, which was given to me after touring the space, is called "The Universe Is My Home," includes characters that travel to another galaxy inside a bubble to interact with aliens that look like glowing orbs. Like the characters in the book, the audience will encounter the space while inside a human hamster ball.