Cloud Couch

Discover

Cloud Couch gives Portland's Back Cove a public-art destination within an everyday walking landscape. Vivian Beer's work is sculptural seating made from white-painted steel, with automotive paint and a granite base. Its title and forms evoke clouds and waves, bringing an imaginative domestic object into an outdoor setting. Begin by looking at the contours before deciding whether the stronger association is with something overhead or with water. The contrast between a solid material and an apparently light subject supplies a useful starting point without requiring a long art-historical introduction.

The Portland Public Art Committee dates the work to 2008. Beer contributed it as a companion to Rustle Diptych II, the sculpture chosen for Portland's Winslow Park at Baxter Boulevard and Temple Street. That origin is part of its story, but it should not be confused with its later placement. The two works began in a relationship to one another. Looking at one independently raises a different question: how much of a sculpture's meaning comes from its form, and how much from what stands beside it?

A municipal annual report documents a consequential change in 2014. The committee moved Cloud Couch from Winslow Park because its placement did not sufficiently reach the general walking public. Public Works relocated it to the water side of Baxter Boulevard, opposite the exit road from Payson Park. The report also records brush clearing to broaden the city view from the bench. This was a change in how people would encounter the work as well as a physical move. A public artwork can acquire a different audience without the artist needing to make a different object.

Beer's own description of her practice helps explain the combination of sculpture and seating. She approaches function as a way to shape interactions with things, while allowing imagination to guide form. Her work moves among contemporary design, craft, and sculpture rather than remaining within one category. Applied here, that perspective suggests two equally useful questions: what does the object resemble, and what does its invitation to pause do to the surrounding space? Consider both before reducing the visit to either a furniture test or a photograph of an unusual shape.

An original account of Beer's 2011 guest lecture adds a small design detail. The writer of Walrus and Clam recalled the artist explaining that Cloud Couch was made slightly higher than an ordinary bench, so a sitter's toes might just reach the ground, reinforcing the title's suggestion of floating. This is an attendee's report of an artist talk, not a firsthand review of the Portland installation or a promise of the same physical experience for every body. It does make proportion worth noticing: compare the seat with your own standing viewpoint before making assumptions about comfort.

Approach from the established public pedestrian route and leave space for people continuing past. Follow any posted condition or maintenance notice before using the seating. For a photograph, compare a close composition of a curved edge with a broader view that relates the work to its outdoor setting. Avoid making another visitor the uninvited subject of the frame. The most interesting pause may be the point at which the distinction between looking at an artwork and occupying a small piece of public space becomes less clear.

Fun facts

1. Cloud Couch entered Portland’s public-art collection in 2008.
2. A municipal report documents its relocation toward Back Cove’s walking public in 2014.
3. White-painted steel gives the cloud-and-wave forms an unexpected material contrast.

Read the official sources →

Capture

1. Compare a curved edge with a broader view of the outdoor setting.
2. Photograph without making nearby walkers an uninvited main subject.

Social

Cloud Couch invites a pause between sculpture and seating.

Vivian Beer’s white-painted steel forms evoke clouds and waves.

The work began as a companion to Rustle Diptych II.

Its 2014 move brought it closer to the general walking public.

A municipal report records both relocation and work opening the view.

Beer’s approach connects imaginative form with human interaction.

A lecture attendee recalled how seat height contributed to the floating idea.

What changes an artwork more: moving it, using it, or looking at it from another height?

Hashtags

1. #Cre8Travel
2. #Maine
3. #Portland
4. #CloudCouch
5. #PublicArt

Sources & visitor information

• www.publicartportland.org
• content.civicplus.com
• www.vivianbeer.com
• walrusandclam.blogspot.com