“Floating Mountains, Singing Clouds,” a site-specific installation by Chinese-American artist Mei-ling Hom, continued the Perspectives series of contemporary installations in the lofty entrance pavilion of the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery.
Hom’s 30 cloud-like forms and an original Chinese flute (xiao) composition by American composer Eli Marshall created a landscape-in-space that translated traditional Chinese landscape paintings into the contemporary register of installation art. The hexnet (chicken wire) clouds floated at staggered levels in the carefully lit but darkened space, apparently dissolving and reappearing as viewers make their way through the area. The installation emphasized both the ephemeral and palpable qualities of space as the clouds cast delicate linear patterns on the walls and floor.
