The Nature of Clouds: Holli Harmon at Wildling Museum

Mar 30

Mar 30 The Nature of Clouds: Holli Harmon at Wildling Museum

By Jake Einsiedl, LUM x UCSB arts writing intern

At Wildling Museum of Art and Nature’s new Tower Gallery, Holli Harmon: The Nature of Clouds, a site-specific installation, examines the water cycle in an organized milieu of suspended foliage, a heavenly mural, mirrored tree stumps and dangling crystals.

Holli Harmon’s immersive work centers around a Norfolk Island Pine tree and three Eucalyptus stumps. Mirrors rest on the surfaces of each stump and reflect back the Earthly hues below and cumulus clouds above. Coleus, spider plants and various succulents root inside kokedama moss balls, inspired by the Japanese floral art form of kokedama string gardens. As installation pieces twirl, color is cast into constant movement, referencing the circularity and transpiration of the water cycle.

“It’s exploring that whole circle as its own biosphere in an artistic way that's beautiful, and it's a bit like a snow globe,” Harmon said.

But instead of looking through a snow globe, The Nature of Clouds calls us to peer through the lens of a glass tower. Between the roar of cars at an intersection just steps from the museum and their reflections that occasionally obscure the view inside, the human footprint is an essential aspect of the installation.

Electrical outlets interrupt the cumulus tones splashing the tower’s inner walls and plants breathe beneath artificial clouds. The exhibit is as natural as it is artificial, and the space in which the work resides acts as a part of the installation itself.

Holli Harmon: The Nature of Clouds, Installation view, Wildling Museum, 2021. Photo by George Rose. — *Holli Harmon: The Nature of Clouds,* Installation view, Wildling Museum, 2021. Photo by George Rose.

Harmon responds to the Central Coast’s recent history fraught with self-isolation and natural disaster and seeks to reflect our collective desire to connect with and control nature.

“I am invested in and inspired by the cultures that shape our community and how the land shapes our culture,” Harmon said. “I look at global warming and our history with wildfire and floods, and I think about how the world is changing relatively quickly and how important plants are in our atmosphere.”

Blending science and art, Harmon’s inspiration ranges from 19th century British meteorologist Luke Howard’s cloud classification system to cloud poetry by writer Johann Goethe and contemporary poet Mark Strand.

“I have a science background, so I explore things both artistically and from a science understanding,” said Harmon.

The Nature of Clouds also offers a mystical experience. As crystals emulate rainfall and mirrors reflect symbiosis, the installation captures the magic of the water cycle and magnifies a process that takes place both at a distance and all around us simultaneously.

At once familiar and mystic, organic and artificial, The Nature of Clouds asks us to reconsider our relationship with nature.

“If you think about something that is magical, it stretches the boundaries of what you already know,” Harmon said. “We can find that in science and it's still magical.”