"Boston-based Yu-Wen Wu has produced a mesmerizing 40-minute video of cloud formations and random sounds ranging from quiet conversations to calliope music and a passing motorcycle. She shot her footage in sunlight and storms, and while standing amid a fast-rising ocean tide. Her images include classic cumulus, stratus, cirrus and lenticular clouds that dissolve and expand into one another, roiling and tumbling as she manipulates their speed and scale. Edited so the clouds rise and sink, fill the wall with turbulence or dissolve into puffs of nothingness, Wu’s “Tempo Frieze” is a compelling visual symphony." - Mary Abbe

Read Clouds fill the Weisman In A Fun Show

We have all stared in wonder at clouds. They are available to anyone who takes the time to look up at the sky. Clouds invite leisure and contemplation. Formed by vapor and particulates, atmospheric pressure, wind and temperature, these ephemeral substances transform our imaginations. Beautiful or ominous they portend change in weather and climate.

Climate related disasters are a urgent reality.  "An annual average of 21.5 million people have been forcibly displaced by weather-related sudden onset hazards – such as floods, storms, wildfires, extreme temperature – each year since 2008. Thousands flee their homes in the context of slow-onset hazards, such as droughts or coastal erosion linked to sea level rise" (UNHCR).

Through the wonder and awe of natural phenomenon, Wu hopes to bring attention to what exists in our environment and what we must not lose through the interconnected consequences of climate change. Clouds embody Wu's continual work of migration, from natural phenomenon to human im/migration and its undeniable correlation.

Clouds, Temporarily Visible curated by Diane Mullin

Schmid, Christina, Of Clouds and Other Mysterious Migrants

Abbe, Mary, Clouds fill the Weisman in a fun show
(Star Tribune February 5, 2016)

CBS Minnesota, Weisman Ponders the Magic of Clouds