Cloud Chamber Gets a New Roof

karen c. kelly, Senior Editor

The only work of art in the People’s Collection that gradually reveals itself, Cloud Chamber for the Trees and Sky asks a bit of patience from Park visitors who enter its “dark room,” or camera obscura. At first one is immersed in black, but as eyes adjust to being inside the “hobbit hut,” as the chamber is fondly nicknamed, a beautiful image begins to emerge on the floor and walls. The sky and trees above are projected through a small hole in the chamber’s roof and appear reversed and inverted. As environmental artist Chris Drury says, “It is an altered image, slightly blurred, dim, like a scene from an old movie or a dream.”

Drury has created 15 other chambers like this one around the world. They occupy forests, hilltops, cliffsides, and other natural sites in places like the United Kingdom, Belgium, Denmark, Italy, and Japan. Cloud Chamber for the Trees and Sky was the first of two chambers created in the United States. These works invite a meditative, quiet experience of being in nature and yet feeling somewhat removed.

The NCMA’s Cloud Chamber is one of the most beloved installations in the Museum Park. After 17 years of use and environmental exposure, portions of the octagonal roof made of yellow pine were showing severe signs of natural deterioration and rot.

In consultation with the artist, the NCMA’s restoration team—Ben Bridgers, manager of Park collection and exhibitions, and Corey Riley, objects conservator— dismantled the original roof and replicated each element using locally sourced black locust wood, a more robust material. You can learn more about the cloud chamber and its restoration by visiting the new Conservation Gallery in West Building, always free, and open to the public during regular Museum hours.