Bubbles

The scene in Jean-Baptiste-Siméon Chardin’s painting depicts a figure blowing a bubble, a symbol of impermanence and fragility. The painting itself is performing that task, rendering transparency visible. Like singing, whistling, or any other variation of speaking, blowing bubbles requires controlled breathing.

 

Soap Bubbles, after 1739

 

Jean-Baptiste-Siméon Chardin, Soap Bubbles, after 1739, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, gift of The Ahmanson Foundation, photo © Museum Associates/LACMA

 

Bubbles do not produce sound, they encapsulate silence. Bruce Nauman’s bubble is broadcasted to the gallery from a subterranean chamber located in Vienna. Roughly the size of a human body, the chamber is equipped with a lamp, a camera, and a microphone; the images and sounds are transmitted to the monitor displayed in this gallery.

 

Installation photograph

 

Installation photograph, NOT I Throwing Voices (1500 BCE-2020 CE), Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 2021, photo © Museum Associates/LACMA

 

In Rosa Barba’s installation, a modified projector is suspended from the ceiling by the very film being projected. The projected image is blank, but gets altered by the dust and scratches that accumulate over the course of the exhibition. Barba’s work engages with the image of the invisible and the apparatus to display it: the body and the bubble, the shaky projector, and the pictureless film.

 

Installation photograph

 

Installation photograph, NOT I Throwing Voices (1500 BCE-2020 CE), Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 2021, photo © Museum Associates/LACMA 

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