ARTS: Cloud Chamber Turns Gray Skies Blue

Once you see the piece, it becomes clear that nature is Chris Drury's inspiration. In the wooded area behind the North Carolina Museum of Art in Raleigh, he is creating a space that brings the outdoors in and allows viewers to question the relationship between the two.

As part of his "Cloud Chambers" series, Drury's works use a camera obscura - a device that employs a pinhole opening to focus light and project a reverse image on the opposite wall - inside a domed enclosure. The opening at the apex of the chamber reveals a large bit of sky with four trees encroaching at near-90-degree angles around the circle by projecting the image on the floor and walls. Even though the exhibit wasn't close to finished during my visit, I already noticed the calming, near-hypnotic effect of the surroundings.

The dome will be faced with natural stone and roofed with notched logs in an octagonal pattern. Drury will then cover it in natural grasses and plants, allowing the structure to blend with its surroundings. Visitors will enter through a small door and take a place in one of the six seats inside. The chamber will be dark except for the scene on the floor and walls from above, which patrons can watch much like a natural movie projected all around them.

Drury scouted the location a year ago, but only began construction last Monday. He said the placement of the Cloud Chamber was the most important part of the entire building process. The museum will also fortify the trail to the exhibit, which currently is little more than a worn, muddy path through the trees.

Drury hails from Sussex, England, and this is the first such chamber he has created in the United States. The other 12 pieces from the series have been constructed in several locations around the British Isles as well as Belgium and Japan.

-Meg Lawson

"Cloud Chamber," part of the Defying Gravity: Contemporary Art and Flight exibition, will be open to the public during daylight hours beginning in mid-April, and it's free.