The Art Insitute of Chicago is opening a new exhibit named, My Room is another Fish Bowl by artist Philippe Perreno. The exhibit contains several helium filled fish-like shapes weighted to hang at different heights, and creates a space that is questioning of other worlds or states of being. Philippe views his work as a stage where events unfold and play out rather than a collection of images and sculptures. The exhibit is designed to redefine the relationship between object and subject, and the experience is contrasted and specific to the individual viewer.

My Room is another Fish Bowl is set up to give each new and returning viewer a different experience. The fish move aimlessly around and are affected by the air currents of the gallery, natural light from windows, the time of day and weather projected through the windows, and the entrance and departure of each viewer. The lights cause shadows and reflection of different sorts across the gallery. The wind moves the fish and repositions them. The weather determines the light color that comes in contact with the fish. It is these factors that create a different scene each second of the day.

Phillippe Perreno has a reoccurring theme of animism throughout his work. Animism is the idea that objects may have a hidden life, spirit, or agency within them. Perreno moved into the philosophical category of “quasi-object”. Qausi-object goes against the believe that there is a human sphere of culture and language, and the external world of factual objects. The fish within the exhibit are designed to be nether social or natural, making them quasi-objects, with the goal to change the relationship between space and the perception of time for the viewers.

The exhibit will be held in gallery 188. General admission to the museum is $16 including a $2 service tax. A fast pass admission is $29.99, with the ability to skip lines.