Year: 2016
Dimensions: 35’ x 40’ x 10’
Medium/Technique: Thread, Machine Embroidery
Location: Taubman Museum of Art, Roanoke, VA
Photographer: Jeff Hoffman
Produced with the support of the Canada Council for the Arts.
Neon Clouds explores the contrast between thread’s subtle quality and its accumulated presence. This site-specific installation consists of several low-hanging “clouds,” or three-dimensional scribbles, made entirely of thread. Each cloud is built from hundreds of sewn elements, hung from the ceiling with thread. Together, this dense collection of sewn lines acts as a fog or smog in the gallery, referencing pollutants and obscured visibility.
Toxic, saturated thread colours (neon green, yellow, orange, pink and blue) fill the space and create a synthetic environment. Neon colours are used to draw attention and highlight things, such as on caution signs, sticky notes and highlighters. A single neon thread is barely visible, but through the build-up of line, the threads create a neon atmosphere.
Viewers move around the clouds and navigate the space. The clouds shift slightly with air movement, creating a surreal, artificial cloudscape. By making unnatural clouds of saturated colour, I am loosely referencing environmental issues and pollution.
