“A soap bubble is ephemeral. It lasts only for a brief moment and quickly disappears even by a light breeze. The bubble’s symbolic meaning as a metaphor of human’s fragile and insubstantial life was first coined by a Roman writer Varro in the 1st century BC. Also, in 1572 the philosopher Erasmus reintroduced the Latin expression ”Homo bulla” (”man is a bubble”) in his collection of proverbs, Adagia. This special characteristics of bubble attracted lots of artists in 17th century and also other periods. A paint, ‘Cupid Blowing a Soap Bubble (1634)’, by Rembrandt Harmensz van Rijn is one of examples. Metaphor of bubble continues to the modern century and a modern artist, Thomb Kubli, also uses bubbles as a media to transfer invisible and intangible sounds to visible but fleeting form in a 3D space.
The attractiveness of bubble might be coming from its ironical representation of our transient life which reminds us of the value of our existence at a moment and makes us seize the present.”