The Cloud Artist

We see clouds every day. Whether they’re threatening storm clouds or big, fluffy, ones, they are a recognisable part of our everyday life.

But what if you saw a cloud inside? Would it provoke a weird, twisting, surreal feeling deep in your stomach as you look upon something so bizarre and unnatural?

Well, this is what Dutch visual artist Berndnaut Smilde aims to find out. By tinkering away with various chemical formulae, Smilde creates his own clouds as pieces of visual art; he finds a visually-pleasing space and then produces a cloud to inhabit it. Granted, his clouds only last about 10 seconds or so, but this is plenty of time to snap a few beautifully mysterious photos of the installation (if you can call it that).

Artistically, what Smilde enjoys capturing more than anything is the sharp focus of the room contrasted against the fluffiness of his cloud. He says himself “I really like my clouds concentrated, with a lot of texture”; in other words: he likes a big, flocculent, fluffy marshmallow of a cloud.

What he manages to create is a beautiful yet weirdly unsettling image, giving the idea of imprisoning something that really ought to be outside.

Check out some photos below, they are magical.