The vault of Sayles Hall now has its own weather system. Stop by and check out “Unsui: Cloud Forest” the new site-specific installation by interdisciplinary artist Sanford Biggers. These ten “bubble clouds” — like those from his early years as a graffiti artist in Los Angeles — are made of aluminum, acrylic, and LED lights.
“One of the impulses behind the installation was to create something that people can experience without any background information,” said Biggers, whose studio is in New York. “They can make up their own impression and have their own experience that they can share with others.”
“Unsui” — a Japanese word that translates into “cloud, water” — includes several biographical elements, Biggers explained. The piece was inspired in part by his time studying Zen Buddhism in Japan, and the cloud motif is something he frequently incorporates into his work.
Biggers graduated from Morehouse College, later adding an MFA from the The School of the Art Institute of Chicago. He says that due to a lack of art major classes at Morehouse, he was required to take the majority of his classes at the all-women Spelman College. I suspect that was not a great hardship.
Biggers works in a variety of media: video and film, sculpture, fabric, music, and performance. Go to Wiki for his extensive C.V.
The New Yorker magazine ran this profile in 2018.
(The clouds are illuminated and can be viewed through the windows at night. I tweaked this photo a bit to more accurately reflect reality. The clouds are white (I’ve looked at then from both sides now) but they ended up looking bluish-gray in my photos. The hall might be easier to photograph on an overcast day and with a better camera.)
The cloud forest remains up through 2025. Biggers invites us to “Look up and see the light.”
Sayles Hall, Main Green, 81 Waterman Street, Brown University (directions)