Ariel Schlesinger in conversation with Chris Scharp at the Swiss Institute in New York
New York, 2011

About the work:
Ariel Schlesinger’s Untitled (Bubble Machine) (2006) gradually signals its own destruction through its repetitive and inflammatory nature. Consisting of a hand-drill mechanism placed on top of a wooden ladder, the machine periodically drops bubbles of soap onto an electrified field of coils, which in turn makes the bubble burst into a fleeting sphere of flames.

About the artist:
Schlesinger reinvents everyday objects, such as bicycles, packing tape, paper, and printers, into agents of romantic and daring fantasy. His imaginative sense of play comes through in interactive sculptures such as a household printer re-jigged to print directly on walls, a chair with “padding” shaped by a large stack of curved paper, and sidewalk blocks that reconfigure lanes painted on them.

His series of conjoined objects, such as two letter-size pages moving and touching one another as if making love, rolls of masking tape united like Siamese twins, and two biscuits “spooning” can be seen in a romantic light, but Schlesginer also has dangerous side. His numerous works using gas and flames explore risk and neuter a hazardous situation into one that is beautifully controlled.

A video produced by LightHouse Films and Walter Pictures for Artis.