Cloud Catchers

Matt Kenyon (US)

Cloud is a multimedia art installation that provides a visual, interactive critique of the US sub-prime mortgage crisis and the housing bubble originating in 2007. The viewers witness common house-ownership dreams disappear as fast as they materializes — just as many saw the false promises of their homes disappear as they were quickly foreclosed upon during this period.

Miniature artificial house-shaped clouds are created ‘on the fly’ in order to critique the global fallout that resulted from the bursting of the US housing bubble. Local housing capacity to consumption ratios determine the size and frequency of cloud generation, creating a stream of house-shaped clouds. This work functions at the convergence of two scientific systems, which are deeply rooted in prediction and classification: economics and metrology. The vernacular discussion of the weather contrasts with the opaque and technical dialogue surrounding the global economic crisis.

This project uses the viewer’s vernacular understanding of weather, clouds and participation to tell the stories resulting from the recent global financial crisis.

ABOUT THE ARTIST:

Matt Kenyon is an artist and educator who focuses on critical themes addressing the effects of global corporate operations, mass media and communication, military-industrial complexes, and general meditations on the liminal area between life and artificial life.