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My Room is Another Fish Bowl

A work made of mylar; edition number two of three with two artist's proofs.

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  • A work made of mylar; edition number two of three with two artist's proofs.

Date:

2016

Artist:

Philippe Parreno
French, born Algeria, 1963

About this artwork

Philippe Parreno creates spaces that allow us to speculate about alternate worlds and states of being. My Room Is Another Fish Bowl is an immersive installation which explores how objects and environmental factors left to chance actively shape human behavior and the perception of the passage of time.

The work consists of helium-filled fish shapes that have been delicately weighted to float at different heights. Circulating around these floating objects, the visitors have an experience that may be equated or contrasted with that of the fish moving aimlessly within the gallery. In art and words, Parreno has frequently proposed the exhibition as a film without a camera. Here he casts museumgoers to move in a carefully staged gallery space. The fish move with the gallery’s air currents, visitors enter and exit, and natural light from adjacent windows shifts continually according to the weather and time of day. No two individuals’ experience of the space will be identical, nor will the ever-changing installation configuration repeat itself. The drifting Mylar forms and the museum visitors act upon and define each other, rendering both groups neither purely social nor wholly natural.

Status

Currently Off View

Department

Contemporary Art

Artist

Philippe Parreno

Title

My Room is Another Fish Bowl

Date

Made 2016

Medium

Mylar; edition number two of three with two artist's proofs

Dimensions

Bar fish: 94 × 62.2 cm (37 × 24 1/2 in.); Tropical fish,1: 67.9 × 73.7 cm (26 3/4 × 29 in.); Tropical fish, 2: 67.9 × 73.7 cm (26 3/4 × 29 in); Fantasy fish: 96.2 × 95.9 cm (37 3/4 × 37 3/4 in.); Tuna/Shark fish: 68.9 × 102.9 cm (27 1/8 × 40 1/2 in.)

Credit Line

Centennial Major Acquisitions Income, Alfred and May Tiefenbronner Memorial, Laura T. Magnuson Acquisition, Benjamin Argile Memorial, General Acquisitions Endowment, Maurice D. Galleher Endowment funds; Wirt D. Walker Trust

Reference Number

2016.322

Extended information about this artwork

Object information is a work in progress and may be updated as new research findings emerge. To help improve this record, please email . Information about image downloads and licensing is available here.

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