“The Poetics of Atmosphere”: Siera Hyte’s Curation of Art and Change
Through the eyes of Siera Hyte, assistant curator of Modern and Contemporary Art for the Colby College Museum of Art, the sky possesses spiritual significance.
It’s celestial, mysterious. If one were to look back at traditional frescos and other art from the past, the sky has always been a space artists have used to toss around ideas about deities and the afterlife.
Hyte helped to curate the exhibit “Poetics of Atmosphere” with a vision in mind: to reference specific atmospheric imagery which reflects one’s individual articulation of weight, in turn informing one’s experiences of environmental surroundings.
The exhibition is on display at the Colby College Museum of Art until April 17, 2022. It features the video “Cloudscape” (2005), created by Lorna Simpson, as well as several other works including paintings, charcoal compositions, and mixed media displays intentionally placed in dialogue with Simpson’s piece.
“Cloudscape” centers around a single figure played by artist Terry Adkins. He stands still, side-profile in view as he whistles a tune reminiscent of a bygone time. As the video continues, Adkins becomes slowly engulfed by the clouds until his figure fades entirely out of focus.
The clip cycles over and over, and the cloud formations continue to wax and wane, creating an experience of elastic time.
Though one can interpret “Cloudscape” in many ways, Simpson’s work was intended to examine the formation, perception, and experience of Black identity. The figure’s fading and eventual disappearance into the clouds exhibits the way in which race and gender identity inform a person’s agency or lack thereof, in turn determining their level of visibility. Simpson effectively distorts the viewer’s understanding and relationship to time and space within the video.
“I think art, for one, can function as a voice or a storytelling mechanism for the oppressed,” Hyte said in an interview with The Colby Echo. “I think artists have the ability to speak truth to power in a way that is really compelling and pretty much unparalleled in terms of human expression.”
Though art can effectively tackle a variety of important issues such as that of systemic injustice and other forms of oppression, Hyte feels that it is necessary to be more aware of the many ways the different institutions and establishments that present these artworks can warp the artist’s original intentions.
“I don’t think museums and art viewing spaces necessarily always do a great job of creating space for artists who are addressing those issues, who are not white, or who come from otherwise marginalized backgrounds,” Hyte said. “I think, historically, institutions have not always done a good job of making space for that art to be viewed, or valuing what that art has to say, so that’s definitely something in the field that is improving.”
According to Hyte, Simpson’s “Cloudscape” not only serves as a voice for the oppressed, but can also be viewed as somewhat of an elegy for climate change and environmental loss.
“In thinking about climate change in particular, one way to read or experience “Cloudscape” as sort of like an elegy. I think there’s a real sense of loss or fading away, or this sense of disappearance within that video that I think can definitely be connected to conversations that we have about climate change and environmental loss,” Hyte said.
Hyte also felt that “Cloudscape” could help guide the viewing of other works in the show, since its whistling audio remains present throughout the exhibit.
“I think the work is less directly about landscape or the environment,” Hyte said, “but it acts as a really great lens to view the other works in the show, some of which are more specifically concerned with imagery of land or the environment.”
Other images featured in the exhibit are likewise less directly about climate justice or loss, but still stand to reassert the presence of the vast and beautiful landscapes that make up our ecosystems and to inspire change. Cao Xiaoyang’s charcoal piece, “The Twenty-Four Solar Terms: Vernal Equinox” (2019), does just that.
“It’s just a beautiful image of the landscape, and something about it really captures the feeling of quietude that you can only get from being next to a really massive, overwhelming part of the earth,” Hyte said. “I think that sense of connection to the land or understanding of humanity’s position within an ecosystem is super powerful,” Hyte said.
The Residual (2007) by Julie Mehretu is another work in the exhibit that does a great job eliciting strong feelings of connectedness and the desire for change, though indirectly.
“Through the way the show is organized, I think that the feelings evoked by those pieces become something that informs our experience of the landscape, especially because concerns around the environment are sort of inescapable and ever-present in this moment,” Hyte said, “so there’s no way to not read the tension within the relationships between the different works in that way.”
Hyte worked alongside Kelly Thorn, Exhibition Designer, and Megan Carey, Manager of Exhibitions and Publications, to curate “Poetics of Atmosphere.” All students at the College are welcome, and while a visit to the museum might sound like an intimidating experience for some, according to Hyte, there is no wrong way to walk through a museum gallery.
“Museums have the potential to be community gathering spaces and I see folks come here where it’s clear they’re just meeting a friend for coffee and the gallery is just a place for them to stroll together, or it’s a place for a caregiver to bring their kid on a blizzarding day,” Hyte said. “I think that’s just as important for the campus community and the broader community as anything else.
~ Jenna Boling ‘24
