Photos of Dutch born artist Bernard Smilde's 'cloud installation' titled 'Nimbus' went viral in 2012. All seeing all knowing art-God Saatchi emailed Smilde to include his photographs in the Saatchi photography show, and the rest as they say, is history in the making.
The artist credits the light in the netherlands, as well as another more famous dutch artist Vermeer as inspiration. Noting that the water reflecting light back into the dutch clouds creates the luminous effect that the dutch painters have sought to reproduce.
He's also interested how objects are altered by the architecture within which they're placed. Hence the choice of varying locations for his nimbus series (photographs of fleeting cloud phenomenon created with a complex DIY set of equipment including a smoked machine). These have included a dutch castle that in the 70s housed psychiatric patients, or the cologne cathedral (photo above) where Rubens was baptised.
Without having been to these places and seen these clouds, there's something that instantly draws you in. Isolated clouds like a nimbus conjure up memories of spaciousness and childhood. Summer days or bright sharp cold springs when the light is uplifting rather than grey and depressing.
One of my favourite books as a child was a story about a looking for patterns in clouds. Smilde comments himself that the clouds themselves have a multitude of meanings but he likes to see them as having personalities. Other projections about deeper meanings are likely to be rebuffed however:
“I’m not interested in nature… I do like the idea that the cloud is a universal icon. Some people think it’s geography, others religion. Some say [my work] is about Surrealism, others Minimalism… Actually it’s more of a canvas to project ideas on.”
I like the calm and feelings of solitude from the photos not just the concept.
I'm interested in traces and memory in walls and pavements which contrasts nicely with something so fleeting and almost supernatural as the clouds.
The spontaneity and impermanence of the installation is one that I like. You can enjoy the after-image but you can't experience it the same way, unlike a painting or photo. I like that detachment and the sneakiness to it. Like running up kissing someone on the cheek and legging it before they see you.
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