CHASING CLOUDS

(2019)

Installation view of Chasing Clouds

Chasing Clouds explores the practice of vaping, a visual manifestation of breath patterns that evoke the escaping ectoplasm of 19th century spirit photography, auras, chakras, energy fields, and the dissolution of self. Brief and sculptural formations, shaped by breath—is the focus of this series inspired by observing people vaping in public. With the practice of vaping, tobacco’s ritualistic use, adopted and adapted across centuries, moves from the organic to the synthetic. The visual ritual is compelling: something intimate made momentarily visible in air—a kind of architecture built from breath and quickly undone. In local vape cafes, breath-clouds were photographed against a neutral backdrop emphasizing their ephemeral forms. These multiple exposures of single breath moments were then layered for the final piece. The images’ oval shapes and ultra-shiny surfaces function like mirrors or portals, enhancing the sense of suspended presence. Each image captures a moment that hovers between visibility and dissolution, echoing the body’s desire to express or release something unspoken.

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