Cloud Studies

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From the early nineteenth century onwards the desire to record clouds accurately—in the name of art or science or faith—promoted rapid advances in representational technologies. Eternal and fleeting, the sky remains a realm of wonder and confusion today; an emblem of freedom, a site of conflict, and a source of dread. The works documented here seek to contain some of these contradictions, while rejoicing when the attempt fails.

Some of these works are directly translated from earlier images of clouds—from Constable through Le Gray, Muybridge, and Stieglitz to the Manhattan Project. Others draw from clouds I've seen, often chosen for the memories and emotions that accompanied the initial encounter as much as for their appearance, although the two aren't readily seperable.

Although fixed in materially stable sheets of aluminium, the images dissolve into new forms as the light in which they are viewed changes. They subtly evolve with every flicker of cloud between sun and earth. Historical cloudscapes fixed many generations ago are animated by those of today; the weather of once upon a time conflated with now. The past and the present overlap but fail to fit.