Atmospheric disruption

By Brad Feuerhelm*

Juan Hein’s Clouds and Bombs (Disko Bay Nov, 2020) is a study of the phenomenon of atmospheric disruption or change. Clouds are not a fixed part of our environment and exist in passing as ephemeral elements. Artists and photographers have been obsessed with cloud studies. Turner, Constable, and Alfred Stieglitz are but a small list of artists interested in capturing clouds as a subject matter.

In the case of Stieglitz, the cloud itself held metaphorical value. Here he is ruminating on their value: "to hold a moment, how to record something so completely, that all who see [the picture of it] will relive an equivalent of what has been expressed", said Alfred Stieglitz in 1926. The yearning sentiment as expressed by Stieglitz asks the viewer to consider time, meaning and the inevitable capture of all that is fleeting and disappearing.

Bombs are another subject matter that have held particular interest in twentieth century life post-WWII. Bruce Nauman, Stanley Kubrick, Shomei Tomatsu, William Eggleston (obliquely), Vittorio Mortarotti & Anush Hamzehian and Kikuji Kawada are all artists that have found interest in the theme of the bomb among many others.

In the book, Hein plays with the themes of clouds and bombs through the use of an imagined viewing of their imagery. Hein uses the Internet to comment on the spectacle of clouds and bombs through their digital dissolve and poor resolution. Bathed in a digital bath, their forms are pulled apart by poor resolution which asks the viewer how they see or perceive their physicality and potential. Its an interesting book that reminds me in parts of Batia Suter’s encyclopedia studies.

The cover is attractive and the relatively small amount of images define the point perfectly without being overloaded with too many images which would fatigue the viewer and make the experience less interesting.

This is the sort of book for people thinking through archive and history. The important part of the book is between spectacle and "the digital" and the wiki commons type of usage asking what is universal in images and traumatic experience coupled with an acknowledgement of how quickly life moves both on and off screen.

*Curator and founder of Ordinary Light