[The Behaviour of the Clouds]

THE BEHAVIOUR OF THE CLOUDS

2019

Bamboo Blind, Plaster

Antwerp, Belgium

Clouds possess no architecture of their own.

Yet they shape the world beneath them. They govern light, shadow, atmosphere, temperature, and weather. Entire landscapes are transformed by their passing presence.

The Behaviour of the Clouds emerged through a collaboration between Tae and Peruvian artist Nicolás Lamas. Through extended conversations surrounding artefacts, science, material histories, and systems of transformation, a shared enquiry gradually developed.

At the centre of the work stood a traditional Korean bamboo blind.

Historically, the blind functioned as a mediator between interior and exterior space. It filtered sunlight, permitted air to circulate, and established a threshold between visibility and concealment.

Tae became interested in separating the object from this inherited function.

The bamboo strips were woven together before being covered by hand with layers of plaster. Gradually, the spaces that once allowed transparency became opaque. What had functioned as a membrane became a wall.

Suspended within a glass structure flooded by natural light, the work occupied an ambiguous state between architecture and atmosphere. Air currents caused subtle movements throughout its surface. Small particles detached over time and drifted into the surrounding space. Light continually altered its appearance.

The sculpture ceased to behave as an object.

Instead, it began to behave like weather.

Like clouds themselves, its presence could not be understood through form alone. It revealed itself through its effects. Through the shadows it produced. Through the light it redirected. Through the atmosphere it generated.

The blind remained recognisable.

Yet it no longer divided space.

It no longer sheltered.

It no longer fulfilled its original purpose.

Instead it entered another condition entirely.

A structure behaving like a cloud.

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