Happy Cloud In Pictures

By · February 26, 2009 at 22:42 pm · No comments · Arts and Events · Report an error ·

For those who didn’t get the chance to see it for themselves, here are some photos of the highly anticipated Happy Cloud from our generous Flickr friends who managed to get down to South Bank yesterday when the cloud was unleashed. The cloud was, from eye witness accounts, less of a cloud-burst and more of a sporadic release of wispy smiling faces… and the pinkness originally promised looks to be lacking in these snaps. They look like airborne pieces of polystyrene. But the smiles are there, the fluffiness is there, the floating benevolence and general good humour are there.

There is also a touch of sadness, a wistfulness and melancholy edge to the faces captured floating on their own, bent or turned upside down by the breeze, hovering uncertainly over the dome of St Paul’s. They are fleeting faces, their smiles only temporary and adrift in the atmosphere, on their own and too fragile, too insubstantial to grasp and pin down.

After the photos were taken, the faces drifted away, leaving only the memory of two dots and a curve in the sky that spelled out more than a stream of letters from the alphabet ever could.

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  • http://undefined samu

    I found it pretty darkly amusing. Some were torn to shreds by the wind as soon as they escaped, others clawed apart by the trees, while a few drowned in the river without a single limb to flail in a desperate attempt to stay afloat… but it was nice to see the survivors float past the members’ room window later on.

    The Turbine Hall might have been a friendlier environment for them. Well away from the spider, of course.

  • http://null paulcox

    Lovely, though I fear next time we see this it won’t be in the service of art. I can too easily imagine foamy Virgin logos or Coke bottles floating all over the city.

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