"The Architecture of Air"
Clouds move, migrate, transform, spontaneously appear, disappear.
They can be read as the perpetual transience of both physical and spiritual existence. Clouds mystify: one can read images into them, divinate and forecast the weather. Da Vinci, as well as many other artists, would stare at clouds for shapes to trigger creative impulses and earlier in the 20th century the surrealists went back to this form of natural automatism. Clouds are prime examples of apparently randomly patterned behaviour.
Depending on the prevailing wind conditions and height of the clouds, various shapes and densities are formed. The light conditions play a great role in the appearance of clouds. Clouds may be seen to dissipate in rhythmic ways, this also applies to their formation. Air is of course essential to these "water" clouds, and this brings me to the conclusion that clouds reflect the structure or "architecture" of the air. Hence I have named this project
"The Architecture of Air"
Air in the form of breezes, gales, tornadoes and other manifestations all produce particular patterning and motion in clouds. Clouds indicate the passage of air as well as aircraft paths. Clouds in the sky at particular times of the day can imbue one with many emotions ranging from an ecstatic appreciation of beauty to that of fear and loneliness. Clouds are mostly connected one way or the other with the sky; in fact cloud and sky is mostly synonymous.
The physicist, Rutherford, built a cloud chamber to observe the paths of sub-atomic particles: thus the cloud is an instrument in mapping physical manifestations on a normally invisible level . The manifestation of energy journeying through various points. The air lifts moisture and causes through its motion vast intercontinental travels. From space the Earth is defined by its spectacular and organically spiralling cloud layers.
I look upon these manifestations as natures "mandalas". Mandalas are patterns mostly used in the East to induce altered states of conciousness and awareness in the viewer through the application of geometric principles and symbolism.However these are static images. One can be absorbed into a highly meditative condition by
watching clouds transform themselves into infinite patterns. In this way they also relate to fractals which are found as a patterned form of chaos in most interactions in nature and matter.
Fractals can be generated by computer and provide insights into the behaviour of patterns and reactions occuring in nature. I am interested in the interconnectiveness of phenomena.
Water is the basis of clouds. The vapour formed by water on the ground forms
clouds at the appropriate height and temperature.
Water is presented in another state of its essential being.
Ghosts, souls, phantoms and spirits have in popular imagery been represented by the various forms of water vapour, namely mists, fogs and in some instances, smoke. Smoke is also relevant in the fact that it behaves in certain ways similar to water based clouds. It too is a manifestation of another state of the matter from which it derived, but in its case cannot revert to the substance which produced it, due to irreversible chemical, and not physical changes, as in the case of water.
Air often carries in its currents unwanted passengers, its composition being influenced by the various smoke it gathers through fires, disasters, war and pollution. The same air has been in existence for millenia. It is possible in one breath to inhale molecules which have been in the lungs of Gandhi and Hitler. The same is true for water; both of these compounds and mixtures recycle and migrate.
The fascination of clouds: the production of life-supporting rain, hail, mist, moisture. The tactical use of mist and fog in hunting and armed combat and also the cause of disaster in the air, on land and at sea. The obscuring of vision or the refuge provided.
"Alchemical" is the word I would use to describe the essential nature of clouds. That is the transmutation of various material and non-material aspects into other forms.
Storms; a source of primal terror bring lightning, thunder, rain, hail and at times chaotic destruction. The storm cloud is looked at as a harbinger of various disasters or relief from drought.
Clouds so dense with moisture that they obscure the sun and momentarily turn nature on its head. Day becomes night and with the ferocity of the lightning, night becomes day. The electrical connection of mighty forces between the earth and the heavens is initiated. This brings forth the image of a masculine, explosive and energetic sky and a receptive feminine earth constantly being nurtured and fertilised .
In all these activities there is to be found a random but at times cyclical pattern of primal forces. There is a very direct reflection of the duality of existence, good and bad, maleficent or benevolent. The constant changes and the "death" of clouds as they give birth to rain are reminiscent of life in general and the existential nature of our existence.
It is with these thoughts and meditations that I have embarked on a computer based production utilising forms of randomness generated within the computer itself and then, conversely, structured formats, to allow the essence of my perception of clouds to come into play. I have used the music of the Musician and composer, Andi Spicer, to represent the random structures of air and is the framework around which the images are based. The nature of the music is random, formed by feedback on an electric guitar but in itself also manipulated to a certain degree bringing an "aesthetic" but still primal sense to the composition. I have taken clouds and concretized them rather than let them behave naturally. This is a contradictory position which prompts another sense of reality.
I deal with measurements, metamorphosis and patterning. It is an attempt, along with the paintings, to reconnect to these primal concepts and energies.
The paintings of clouds will be placed at the cardinal points of the compass around the audio column. The audio output can either be heard through headphones or small speakers. The production has been designed as ongoing but at any stage it still forms a coherent vision. It is as mutable as the clouds themselves. I shall be adding a considerable amount of commentary shortly as this project expands.
*With the added and reworked piece for the South African exhibitions, I have incorporated the September 11 attacks into the work and changed the installation soundtrack. I will probably be doing a digital interpretation of the work.
I have also made a new sound track for the piece incorporating some of Andi Spicer's work he did with Andrew Toms. The work in question is a choral piece for which I wrote the words, (originally intended for my digital opera "Myth for the End of Time") called "Barbed Tearings" plus extracts of Islamic Jihad battlefield songs.
Sunday 31 March 2002
The Architecture of Air installation at the Pretoria Art Museum 2002