1997
Memphis, TN
Bubble Machine with existing streetlight
As part of the X Marks the Spot
public art project sponsored by the University of Memphis Art Museum
and Number: Magazine, Bubble Light was installed in a downtown Memphis
intersection for a month in 1997.
For one hour at dusk every evening, a bubble machine, mounted in the third-story
window, filled the air with a cloud of bubbles. A street light located
directly below the bubble machine illuminated the bubbles as they
floated near the light, creating a large, faint, shimmering sphere above
the street. Instead of using light to illuminate an object, here the bubbles
were used to make the shape and scale of he streetlight's glow visible.
X Marks the Spot incorporated ten temporary public art projects, with the
intent of putting art in places where people would not ordinarily encounter
art. By inserting a foreign element (the bubbles) into the environment,
so that they interact with the light, the artwork is formed at the intersection
of the permanent and the ephemeral.
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