Above the Clouds (2011)

Four-channel, site-specific video installation on windows.

Using footage from a unmanned high-altitude balloon flight, the building became a unified space, filled with the rotating, swaying, upper atmosphere.

It was designed to be seen by the public, on the street, after sunset.

Full Description

Above the Clouds (2011).

Four-channel, site-specific video installation on windows. Size: Approx. 15’ x 60’ x 20’ (H x W x D) (Audio is an option but it was not used in this installation.)

Video used in the installation: Georgie Friedman, "Flight II, Ascent Excerpt," 26 min, continuous loop

Using footage from a unmanned high-altitude balloon flight, the building became a unified space, filled with the rotating, swaying, upper atmosphere.

Installation details: Above the Clouds was a video installation that could be seen on the corner of Harrison Avenue and Paul Sullivan Way in Boston, MA.

Synchronized videos were projected onto the four window groupings, from three different rooms, within two separate galleries: Carroll and Sons and Anthony Greaney. Each of the four window groupings were approximately 100” H x 126” W. If you were to walk along the building, the installation spanned approximately 80 feet and was about 15 feet high. It was on view nightly from January 5 - February 26, 2011.

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Artist Statement

For Flight Series (2010-11), I collaborated with two engineers to send automated digital cameras (still and video) into the Stratosphere via high-altitude balloons. Since the balloon and camera payload moves based on wind speed and air pressure, the footage became a visual record of the journey to and from over 90,000 feet above Earth. I am deeply interested in how these journeys address our psychological and cultural fascination with exploration, crossing boundaries and relationship to the unknown.

From this footage, I created a series of photographic grids and this four-channel video installation, Above the Clouds, 2011.

I designed this installation as a public art piece, since it could only be seen as a whole from the exterior of the building. As the footage shifted between concrete and abstract moments, the oscillating cloud and upper-sky horizon line unified the separate spaces, transforming the building into a vessel housing the uncontainable atmosphere.

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