2007, Coloured pastel on coloured paper, 32.3 x 45.9 cm

This picture shows one of the artist’s close friends from his art school days who worked as a performer and children’s entertainer. Here he is shown blowing up a large plastic bubble around his head as part of a demonstration he was giving at the Science Museum in London. Phillip Butah told me he was fascinated by the children’s response to the magic and wonder happening before their eyes, and by the idea of his friend’s head contained so perfectly within the bubble, with colours swimming around it.