CLOD


2018 

A reseach project exploring the solid and ephemeral, focussed on the linguistic and metaphoric connection between clouds and rocks.

The project developed through consultation with meteorologists, geologists and working with students at Isle of Ely School on the MAKEBELIEVE project. The students observational cloud drawings sparked this research into ways we try and fix, measure and describe the intangible. 

The project culminated in an exhibition CLOD at Gallery Q, Copenhagen, where the following works were exhibited:

CLOD

CLUD

HOLES

IN CIRCLES WITHOUT STOPPING

Other project outcomes include CLOUD CANOPY, at Isle of Ely school which was a playground sculpture and screenprinted poster, based on the students observational cloud drawings.






Essay, written on occasion of publication as part of CLOD exhibition.

"The idea of a lump or mass of something connects clouds and clods, earth and water.

In Old English before a cloud was a cloud, a cloud was a clod and a clūd, so named for the similarity of cumulus clouds and rock masses. A heavy thing on the ground moved into a thing in the air. Keeping both the o and the u, getting soft and light.

When a young child draws a cloud they focus more on the movement of the hand than the line. Moving fast or lightly touching the paper, gripping the pencil or using fingers to smudge and find cloud-ness.

An unbroken line around something turns it into an object. A dashed or dotted line around an object on a map marks it as unsurveyed, we're not completely sure this is there, or if it is, what it looks like.

A cloud moves too fast to catch, a rock moves too slowly. You just have to move your hand in circles without stopping."