Cloud Busting (installation)
Cloud Busting is a 2013 ceramic installation by Malcolm Mobutu Smith, which consists of eight tiles made by hand and individually mounted to a wall painted with a swirling, playful pattern, located within the Eskenazi Health Outpatient Care Center on the Sidney and Lois [Eskenazi Hospital] campus, near downtown Indianapolis, Indiana, and is part of the Eskenazi Health Art Collection.
Description
Cloud Busting, the ceramic mural artwork by Malcolm Mobutu Smith, is inspired by the common pastime of identifying shapes and forms among the clouds. In the same way imaginative scenes and stories are derived from undetermined clouds, Cloud Busting offers shapes and forms that seem to float along the wall, awaiting interpretation. This work transforms the waiting room into a colorful, lighthearted, and fun space where visitors can engage with the inspiring and intriguing work. Smith describes Cloud Busting:“In this work I hope the viewer can engage in a continuous sense of mystery and imagination, aided by the grandness of scale, bold and complex surfaces, and the ‘liquid elevation’ of elements. These are gravity-defying ceramic forms floating in mid-air; the air implied or “made real” by the undulating painted motif on the background and the physicality of the hovering tile forms.” - Malcolm Mobutu Smith
Cloud Busting consists of eight tiles made by hand and individually mounted to a wall painted with a swirling, playful pattern. Together, the eight tiles are made from 500 lbs. of clay. Creating the tiles took a total of eight months, each requiring more than one week to dry before being fired. The works are individually mounted to the waiting room wall, which features a painted swirling and spinning pattern, much like blowing winds. This pattern, along with tile glaze color, rhythm, and scale, unite the individual tiles into a single composition.