The sky above us
Cloud Album goes all the way up with 250 works from the Archive of Modern Conflict, on view at North Vancouver’s The Polygon Gallery until May 1.
Jean Vincent (et. al.), Cloud Album, 1894 – 1940. Gelatin silver print album. Courtesy of the Archive of Modern Conflict.
What is it about clouds that have long since intrigued us? Never the same way twice, they seem shrouded in mystery, just as beautiful as they are foreboding. Cloud Album at The Polygon Gallery in North Vancouver, BC, takes our understanding of those looming masses to even greater heights with over 250 historically and culturally significant works drawn from the collection of the Archive of Modern Conflict (AMC). On view through May 1, Cloud Album is curated by AMC’s Luce Lebart and Timothy Prus. “Clouds went from being impossible to shoot at the dawn of photography, to becoming one of the most photographed subjects today,” explains Lebart in a press statement. “Even when it was technically difficult to render clouds in photographs, people were devoted to capturing the sky and its many manifestations.” This exhibition celebrates the ephemeral beauty of clouds — as documented by scientists, amateurs and artists alike — forming connections between the history of the sky and the history of photography.
Gustave Le Gray, The Brig, Normandy, France, 1858. Albumen print. Courtesy of the Archive of Modern Conflict.
The AMC is a London-based organization centred on the preservation of a range of vernacular photographs, artifacts and ephemera. From within its collection, Cloud Album unearths a fascinating array of over 200 photographs and 50 albums and books. Some photographs date back to the earliest days of photography by the likes of Gustave Le Gray (image above). “We assembled images produced over a century and a half by artists and photographers using increasingly sophisticated techniques,” says Lebart. “Through this, we discovered stories both small and epic arising from a shared fascination and curiosity about the sky above us.” The exhibition’s title refers to an 1894 scientific album also on view — described as a living document — initiated by Belgian meteorologist Jean Vincent with contributions by hobbyists and professionals (image at top). Also included are “cloud studies by the great British landscape painter John Constable; exciting and previously unknown works unearthed through research into the history of meteorology; images by aviators and artists in flight; snapshots of cataclysmic mushroom clouds from atomic bomb tests; and views from Apollo 9 of a large storm system.”
Club Album, installation view. Photo by Dennis Ha. Image courtesy of The Polygon Gallery.
Cloud Album is on view through May 1 at The Polygon Gallery and is the featured exhibition of the 2022 Capture Photography Festival. Learn more about the exhibition and programming here.
Can’t make it to North Vancouver? Select works from the AMC will also be on view as part of I AM HERE: Home Movies and Everyday Masterpieces, opening at the AGO on April 13 to Members and on April 16 to Annual Passholders and the general public. Keep reading AGOinsider for more art stories from the AGO and beyond.