Manmade Clouds Become (Very) Ephemeral Sculptures

What’s the weather look like today? No, not outside but inside. Is it a bit cloudy in here or is that just me? It may sound like a weird question to ask but not if you’re standing in one of the gallery spaces Dutch artist Berndnaut Smilde has been in. Smilde creates ephemeral artworks using low-tech means—smoke, moisture, and some spot lighting—and installs these temporary sculptures, essentially manmade clouds, in empty exhibition spaces.

The first one Nimbus appeared in 2010 at Probe, a small exhibition space which can only be viewed online. And he recently repeated the transient experiment at the Hotel MariaKapel, Hoorn, Netherlands with Nimbus II in February, which resulted in the image above.

From his website:

Berndnaut Smilde's work often draws upon the physical presence of transitional spaces. Places such as corridors, elevators, staircases and balconies interest Smilde as spaces that exist to be in between. This interest also branches out into the possibility of how a given space might be in between states of construction and deconstruction. — Tristan Hessing, MOOT

Images below are from the Probe exhibition.

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