2010, installation, mixed media, experimental laboratory for soap bubble research, soap bubble machines, video of 20 experiments with soap bubbles (HD video, 21’28’’), 3 photo collages (70 cm x 100 cm), high-speed photography of bursting soap bubbles. RC stands for remotely controlled. Collaboration with Hagen Betzwieser. KiK, Kolderveen, the Netherlands.
Together with Hagen Betzwieser, Schlegel generated a context-sensitive research project at KiK in Drenthe. Chasing the Ephemeral, RC I is a semi-scientific investigation of possible ways of extending the life span of a fleeting phenomenon: the soap bubble. Soap bubbles, iconographic elements in the visual arts at least since the Baroque, here function as a Vanitas symbol reflecting the magnificence as well as the impermanence of human existence. To reveal the layers of this ephemeral phenomenon, the artists carried out twenty experiments, including attempts to discover the best formula for soapsuds, production of giant soap bubbles in the landscape, colouring soap bubbles and filling bubbles with fog. All experiments were documented on videotape and in photographs.
Chasing the Ephemeral, RC I