cloud

special effect #2

- 2013 -

cherry wood, glass

Part of the opera ONCE UPON A PARTICULAR OCCASION (more about this here) are special effects. Special effects always take place on a different layer of fiction than the ongoing story in which the audience is supposed to be immersed. They are often clearly constructed, 'unreal', yet powerful. A special effect is an abstract phenomenon that has its own specific visual idiom; that is why they fascinate me. I wanted to make a 'cloud machine' for my opera; I discovered that a mold works as a very basic machine, able to produce many copies. I made the mold from cherrywood, a solid wood able to withstand heat. Then a glass blower was kind enough to help me produce the clouds.

photo G.J. van Rooij