Bubbleality – Trippin’

Bubbleality – Trippin’ 2020

At the moment of writing it feels like we are in some kind of parallel universe. As theatre photographer I wouldn’t be surprised knowing this would be a decor for the play to come. Instead we really are in this new scenery. Like in the Netflix series ‘Stranger Things’, we are in the Upside Down.

Not knowing what future times would bring us in the beginning of 2020, I started a personal project in 2019 as reaction on mass tourism and the never-ending joy in my hometown Amsterdam (or as I sometimes preferred to call it: Gotham City). One particular day I saw a group of English tourists all dressed up in animal onesies with their roll cases. Although they put a grin on my face, I thought to myself why they did not celebrate this obviously bachelor party in their hometown or .. London? Instead they decided to take a plane and party in another European city. Just for fun. Due to the technology and price fighting flight fares they could go anywhere on the world, for a couple of days. To me this is Madness of Globalization. Last year Amsterdam center was exploding and prediction was it would be worse the following years. Right now, due to Covid19 pandemic, it’s the opposite world. I absolutely don’t like what is happening because of this invisible death. But there is also a positive side. With this ‘intelligent’ lockdown Amsterdam is comfortably ‘quiet’. Only inhabitants walk through the streets. Air is cleaner as before. There is less noise, especially at nights and no sound of hard plastic wheels rolling on the paving stones. Perhaps the corona crisis marks a turning point in how we look upon the world and how we travel. Or will the mass of tourists return, when this is all over? I hope there will be some positive change and my project will end as a last sigh of despair from days gone by.

As in the first series of Bubbleality I wanted to create an alternate dimension as a refuge to escape reality, for entertainment; a Bubble Reality … The second series is called Bubbleality – Trippin’

Originally, I thought of a ‘bachelor party’ tourist dressed in a polar bear suit. For me, the polar bear symbolizes the animal that is the victim of globalization. Humans go ‘crazy’ without taking into account our animal co-inhabitants on earth. The polar bear is represented in the innocent ‘whites’; the costume and litter. All litter, including the roll case, is found on the route I ride with my bike from home to my atelier and will be reused and recycled again.

Huge thanks to:

Judith van Bronswijk for Painting the Amsterdam urban landscape and lively crowd, Rianne Mertens for her inspirational Costume design, Fieke Brokkelkamp for the beastly Make-Up and to theatre maker Bodine Sutorius to perform as arctic creature, Trippin’ in Amsterdam. Concept, Decor & Photography: Robert van der Ree  

Interested to see more? Works: Bubbleality

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2024 © Robert van der Ree
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