Thesaurus

atmosphere

Michaela Gleave, cloudfield

The atmosphere is our common environment, linking us with all other places and life on earth...as well as serving as a membrane between ourselves and infinite time and space. Human impact on this shared space is having dramatic consequences for the entire globe, with the fragility and future degradation of environments as seemingly remote and inaccessible as Antarctica being set to have a serious impact on the global environment.

Michaela Gleave 2007

Cloudfield, first installed at Kudos Galley, University of New South Wales, in 2007, represents an atmospheric condition we share with Antarctica and all the world. In this work, you physically interact with a simulation of cloud. Water collected from the gallery roof is pumped into the pit of a small light room. Droplets from the rising cloud settle on your skin as you step inside the white. Frames of visual reference begin to disappear. A particulate whiteout in Antarctica can be imagined.

Raining room (Diamond dust), first exhibited in 2006 at Sydney's Fisrdtdraft gallery, explores an Antarctic atmospheric phenomenon commonly known as diamond dust. The work invites you into a small dark room, to walk through a veil of water droplets glistening as they fall through shafts of white light. In Antarctica the space is vast, yet the atmosphere created in this tiny space transports you there. You are physically touched by the falling light.