Artist Smilde creates elegant clouds within rooms

Amsterdam - The Dutch artist Berndnaut Smilde has created artistically intricate compositions using clouds inside a room that are difficult for many to imagine. These are not mere props or digitally created images, but real clouds formed using a smoke machine under strictly controlled humidity and pressure, allowing them to elegantly hang in the room while retaining a natural appearance.
The cloud is also illuminated in a unique way to highlight the shadows within the formation, making it look very much like a rain cloud. "I wanted to capture the image of a typical Dutch rain cloud within a space," Smilde describes his intent. "I am interested in the ephemeral aspect of the work. It is just a brief moment and then the cloud breaks apart. The piece then exists only as a photograph," he says.
The effects are further supported by the artist's choice of surroundings. For his first work of this kind titled Nimbus, presented in 2010, he used an empty studio with blue walls and a red floor. According to him, the blue walls create a surreal impression that the clouds are trapped in a closed sky. Their ethereal aspect is preserved thanks to the red floor.
The composition Nimbus II from this year was also prepared in an empty space, this time in a warehouse with a chapel-like ambiance. Its uncovered windows create a slightly gray-blue light that complements the cloud as if the light were emanating directly from it, the author explains. The room remained only lightly lit to enhance the supernatural feel of the image.
Smilde claims that he sought to create something real in a transitional space. His other works are also situated in so-called transitional spaces, mostly in unfinished or demolished buildings. The compositions are created using construction materials such as pipes and simulated objects.