THE CLOUD 2016

Permanent light installation in Thorsgade, Copenhagen.

Concrete, stainless steel, polycarbonate and LED light. 5, 2 m x 4 m x 6 m.

Supported by VIBO Housing Association, The Nordea Fund and Nørrebro Lokaludvalg.

Please scroll down for a description of the project.

The Cloud is a permanent site specific work created to introduce stay, light and place making in a recreational space belonging to a social housing estate in Copenhagen.

The aim of the project is to create a strong relation between people and the place. The sculptural white shape is illuminated at night. This element consists of pieces of white polycarbonate sewn together with stainless steel wire. Nine legs of stainless steel are carrying the white shape. The legs are fixed and grounded to three feets made of concrete. The white shape, its legs and its feets are forming a whole, which balance between being an abstract installation and a figure.

The sewing technique has been developed from my previous work into a more complex pattern making, which creates a very unique and sculptural shape. In my previous work I have often worked with the sphere in a distorted form to create shapes and spaces. Each time I have worked with a distorted sphere there had been two points in the pattern making where all the sewing lines met – similar to how the longitudes meet in the poles on a globe. This time I argue that I again have made a distorted sphere, and that this time the sphere has three points where the sewing lines meet. This new way of pattern making opens up for creating shapes with many gathering points for the sewing lines, and therefore an openness in the future to make much more complex shapes and spaces with a richness in spatial connections and progression.

The Cloud is placed in a recreational space surrounded by a road, trees and the housing estate. A paved path leads through the space. The organic shape, its orientation and placement are related to this unique setting. The shape is lifted and sculpted towards the road in a formal and authoritarian posture. This creates a distinction between the road as public space and the recreational space as semi-public space. When you move around The Cloud, and when you follow the paved path the view and the silhouette of the project changes radically due to its asymmetrical and complex shape. Towards the housing estate The Cloud has a more laid back appearance. The functions of the concrete feet are both to ground the project with weight and to offer a place to sit. The recreational space becomes denser with the spatial presence of the project. Due to this and the size of the project it adds a more human scale to the recreational space in comparison with the nearby five storey tall building blocks.

The Cloud has been well received by the local residents. Kids play on and around the project and teenagers and elders hang around it and enjoy its presence both in the day time, and in the special atmosphere at night time when it is illuminated.