Mary Harris’s Blobarium is an installation-performance presented as a scientific experiment. It attempts to answer this question: how can we rethink the encounter between a human and an extraterrestrial? The work is composed entirely of organic matter: blob, agar, and plants.
The terrarium recreates the ideal environment for the growth of a blob, the only single-celled organism visible to the naked eye. Blobarium questions the impact of humans on an ecosystem.
Laboratory gloves appear to invite viewers to make contact with this environment. This seemingly harmless act has a major impact on the life developing within it. By touching the agar, viewers alter the biotope, accelerate the decomposition process, and even destroy the living matter.
The work is inspired by an anecdote from the 1970s in the USA, recounting the first encounter between a human—Mary Harris—and a blob, which she believed to be an extraterrestrial.