Alex Schweder sits inside a 25-foot tall wheel that is serving as his home for 10 days. He and another artist are sharing space on the hamster-like wheel, coordinating their movements in an art performance focusing on collaboration and trust.

NEW YORK — Ever feel like you’re on a big hamster wheel and you can’t get off?

Ward Shelley and Alex Schweder know the feeling well. The two performance artists are spending 10 days living, eating and sleeping on a giant hamster wheel to make a larger point: We all have to work together to get through the daily grind.

“I wasn’t prepared for this ... perhaps I should have been,” Shelley said from atop the wheel, his feet dangling off the side of the 25-foot-tall wood and metal structure.

One wrong move by him or his fellow human hamster and they risk being thrown off. They are perched on opposite ends of the wheel, 180 degrees from each other, and must carefully coordinate their movements. When one walks, the other must walk in the opposite direction. When one stops, the other must stop.

“It’s really an exploration of what it means to collaborate,” Schweder said from the relative safety at the bottom, inside of the wheel. “It’s an exploration of trust between two people.”

Their live performance called “In Orbit” runs through Sunday at The Boiler gallery in Brooklyn. A few onlookers have come by to gawk at the spectacle.

“We’re living on a big wheel that is essentially a two-bedroom apartment,” Schweder said.

“Sleeping is a kind of refuge,” Shelley added. “There’s psychological pressure here being in this thing so when you get to sleep it’s easy to stay there.”

The men say they knew life on the wheel would be tough, and they are trying to stay mentally tough until they can get back on solid ground.