Created in collaboration with Katie Coughlin

Cloud Catcher was created during a collaborative residency with artist Katie Coughlin in May of 2024 at the Installation Space, in partnership with Walkaway House Residency.

Project Statement

Cloud Catcher was conceived around the form of a spider web and a leaf catcher, inspired by questions of holding, carrying, catching, and covering.

It was made to fit the physical constraints of the Installation Space which has a long, oval floor plan. The traditional octagonal spiderweb polyhedron is compressed to become an oval. The form extends 80 feet lengthwise and is made from various repurposed fabrics.

A blue outer ring and white center mimic the relationship to clouds against the blue sky. The form is intended to wrap around the truck of a tree with its edges hoisted upward, so that the structure becomes a large net or sack, a carrier/catcher of bugs, leaves and twigs that may fall from the tree. Viewers are invited to lay under it and look up as if they were cloud gazing.

The piece is still in-process, awaiting an installation site and date where we envision a collaborative performance in which Cloud Catcher is lifted into the branches of a tree through the process of throwing counterweights, much like the hoisting of a sail.

If you have a perfect tree, please reach out.