Clouds Nine

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Win Knowlton, American, born 1953

Clouds Nine, 2002

Galvanized steel
Princeton University, presented by the Class of 1952 in honor of Gerhard R. Andlinger, Class of 1952, on the occasion of the dedication of the Andlinger Center for the Humanities, May 2004
PP629
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"Clouds Nine was completed and first exhibited at Paul Rogers 9W Gallery in 2002. My poet friend, Michael Gizzi, and I collaborated on the small catalogue for the exhibition, within which he wrote poems to some of the sculptures and one called ‘Clouds Nine’ after my title. 

Cloud’s Nine is a sculptor’s idea about making something as intangible as clouds, tangible; also, turning something seemingly so voluminous into flat cutouts, and there is the contradiction of natural form rendered with industrial material. How would Philip Guston have rendered clouds if he had been a sculptor? 

Nature, the poetic, the irrational, and the ridiculous are all part of my thinking.

In preparing Clouds Nine for the Princeton installation, I created a more swirling sanded finish to all of the cloud surfaces. 

For the installation we determined the placement of anchors into the ceiling beams for the nine clouds. What needed to be determined during installation was the height and tilt/orientation of each cloud. As I was fretting about this on site, the engineer asked me if there was a 'right way' to install them. I said, 'no.'  So, then he said, 'Well, if there is no right way, then there is no wrong way.' This was both obvious and very liberating. Installation proceeded without further delay."

– Win Knowlton