SP w4 Head in the clouds
- HildeMaassen
- Oct 16, 2019
- 4 min read
Updated: Aug 15, 2020
Since I started make images of clouds it might be good to explore a bit what other photographers / artists did with that.
Henk Wildschut
During Unseen in Amsterdam I saw the work of Henk Wildschut. https://unseenplatform.com/projects/power-by-henk-wildschut Henk is a Dutch documentary photographer. In Amsterdam he showed a series of cloud images that at first glance seemed to be ordinary clouds, and that did not really attract my attention. That changed when I found out that all of those clouds had no natural cause but were shot above a factory. In some of the images it was more obvious then in others.
In the exhibition the places where the images where made were not shown. For this blok I placed them underneath to explane it.
These photos were presented by a gallery. They certainly let me think about air pollution. However, what I also wondered; is there an audience for this kind of photos? Who would like to have something like this hanging on the wall of his company house?
Alfred Stieglitz
Alfred Stieglitz started taking photographs of clouds in 1922. He himself said this in 1923, in an article that these photos are a highlight of his work over the past 40 years. 'Through clouds I wanted to lay down my philosophy of life - to show that my photos are not by subject - not by special trees, or faces or interiors, by special privileges, there were clouds for everyone - no tax on them - free of charge. " In the following years he made a total of 350 cloud photos. These were most of the time presented as contact prints on postcards. These photos were named: equivalents. According to Stieglitz, these works express the pure inner emotion of the artist, just as music can. Music was clearly an induction for this series of photos.
I appreciate small, intimate presentation forms more getting older. Photos that are so small that you have to walk to them to see them well. Where you are so close that you can only see it at that moment. There is no place next to you for a second spectator. I noticed that there were a lot of smaller works at Unseen. Despite the big images screaming, they managed to catch my attention.
A few months ago I wrote about the Dutch photographer who makes Nimbus clouds in buildings with the aim of taking this photo. http://www.berndnaut.nl/works/nimbus/
Tara Donovan's
She researches and experiments with properties of various everyday mass-produced products. By repeating forms in a certain way such as stacking, bundling, accumulating, etc., a work, often abstract, is created. This cloud look-a-like is made using styrofoam cups. Light is essential.
Lucy and Jorge Orta
The artists Lucy and Jorge Orta have made a series with artworks that make clouds
Clouds are the gathering place of our imagination. http://www.studio-orta.com/en/artworks/serie/24/Clouds
Caitlind r.c. Brown & Wayne Garrett.
These interactive clouds consisting of 6,000 light bulbs represent social interaction and symbolize the gestalt principle. The visitors to the exhibition must work together to animate 'lightning' on the surface of the image.
The artists usually work with materials produced in bulk. With their projects they want to offer strangers a shared experience.
Charles Pétillon
With a cloud/invasion of balloons and moving lights the artist hopes that we will look differently at everyday things that we pass by without noticing them. 100,000 white balloons were therefore hung in the Govern Garden shopping center for a week.
Kohei Nawa
This artist has produced clouds on the ground with foam. This gives me an idea. Earlier people had told me it would be cool if I could develop a film with rain from the clouds. But what I wondered was where I would get the cloud feeling. This artwork could give me a solution; What if I develop a film in which I mix detergent with the developer and bring this motion to the negative or the print.
Richard Clarkson Studio
Richard Clarkson Studio has a whole series of cloud lamps. The most striking is a magnetic floating LED lamp. https://www.rclarkson.com/collections/clouds
Dirk Lambrechts
For his series and book Flemish Light, the Belgium photographer Dirk Lambrechts took over 6000 photo's of clouds. "He says to have consulted other masters: Turner, Caravaggio, Caspar David Friedrich, Vermeer ... Art is a permanent source of inspiration. The play of light and dark, the control of color. I always learn from it. "
Seeing the these wonderfulp series I have to ask myself; can I contributie something with my own images of clouds?
Leandro Erlich
The artist's single cloud collection contains a captured 3D cloud behind glass. That looks surreal. from Buenos Aires gives us a surreal impression of what catching a cloud in glass would look like. With the aid of the artistic method of layering, the sculptural pieces by Erlich acquire a three-dimensionality. The illusion is created by a technique with various glass plates placed one behind the other.
Vincent van Gogh
Constable
Alex Stoddard
The sleepwalker; self portratits, surrecalistic
Teun Hocks
Surrealistic, cartoon-like hand-in painted images
René Margritte
Clouds and a stone; both float; that could be in a vacuum
Conclusion
Many artists are fascinated by clouds. I wonder how I can offer a different perspective on this subject because that is what I want. I am not interested in making yet another series of clouds. I have to be able to add something personal. I end up with a lot of surrealistic art. A kind of alienation and or transformation; as always fantasizing with my head in the clouds.
Comments