Contemplant les nuages is a project by Dali Wu [student, UQAM] in collaboration with Christophe Cinq, has been presented in two versions. The first took place at La Chaufferie du Coeur des Sciences from March 1st to 3rd, 2022, as part of a residency at Hexagram-UQAM. The second was an exhibition held at the Notre-Dame-de-Grâce Art Centre (Monkland site) from January 13 to February 19, 2023.
This DEMO is part of Dali Wu’s doctoral research-creation process, titled Trans-Image : vivre l’expérience de l’éveil à l’ère du posthumain par des pratiques de recherche-création. Her thesis explores the experience and the concept of awakening, as proposed by Buddhism, from a posthumanist perspective, through artistic practices that combine autoethnography and art-based research.
Situated at the intersection of philosophy, psychology, technology, and the arts, this project questions how technological advancements redefine the notions of humanity and self-consciousness in the age of posthumanism.
Exhibition during the residency at Hexagram-UQAM. La Chaufferie du Coeur des Sciences, 2022. Photo Credit : Dali Wu.
On the fluidity of existence
Contemplant les nuages is a case study exploring the connection between the artist and the Self through multidimensional artistic experimentation. The project blends dreamlike experiences, spiritual symbolism, emotional expression, social context, atmospheric changes, and interactive media. Through these means, it reflects on the fluidity of existence and explores contemporary issues such as the pandemic and technological transformations.
Exhibition at the Notre-Dame-de-Grâce Art Center, 2023. Photo Credit : Dali Wu
“Cloud wall” from Contemplant les Nuages, exhibition at the Notre-Dame-de-Grâce Art Center, 2023. Photo Credit : Dali Wu
In Contemplant les Nuages, clouds become a metaphor for impermanence. They embody the perpetual transformation of the world and the vacuity of shapes and forms. Elusive, fluid, and ephemeral, they open an infinite field of possibilities.
A vision conceived curing confinement
The first idea for this project emerged in 2020, during the confinement imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic. One day, while lying on her couch, Dali had a dreamlike experience. Some key elements of this dream left a deep impression on her: a vast, white sky—luminous yet without a blinding glow—and majestic celestial trees whose roots sprouted from the tops of Buddha’s heads, some white, others black.
To Dali, this dream symbolizes the dualities on the path to individuation in Buddhism: being and non-being, transcendence and earthly reality. This dichotomy echoes Jung’s notion of the Self, described as both empty and full, representing the individual’s psyche as a whole (Jung, 1983/1951).
We often perceive the world through oppositions: good and evil, beauty and ugliness, sacred and profane. Yet, like clouds in perpetual transformation, the boundaries between these notions remain fluid. Recognizing this non-duality inspired Dali to share her experience through artistic expression—as a gift—inviting others to explore an essential freedom: the realization that every being is already awakened (Buddha in Sanskrit). The journey to individuation is not fixed, it is rather a moving manifestation of awakening itself.
Observing the clouds
Dali Wu documenting cloud formations, June 16, 2021. Photo Credit : Keyun Li
From April 25, 2021, to April 26, 2022, still under confinement, Dali documented the daily cloud formations visible from the rooftop of her home. Unlike On Kawara’s Date Paintings (1966–2014), whose mechanical aesthetics might seem oppressive, these introspective observations—mostly made between 6 p.m. and 9pm—were recorded using a variety of media, including dry pastels, acrylic paint, collage, newspapers, and other everyday materials.
By favoring tangible media to express her subjectivity, Dali simultaneously captures the versatile, ever-changing nature of cloud formations and her own emotional fluctuations. These drawings thus become a record of the subtle choreography between the inner and outer worlds.
The evolving archive of drawings is available in digital format at this link.
Exhibition at the Notre-Dame-de-Grâce Art Center. Close-up of the wall displaying the cloud drawings, arranged in chronological order, 2023. Photo credit: Dali Wu.
From daily practice to interactive installation
Hexagram residency, preparations for the exhibition at La Chaufferie, 2022. Photo credit: Weiwei Wang.
During her exhibition at La Chaufferie, initially reluctant to present her work, Dali discovered large, semi-transparent wooden frames abandoned among the garbage. Inspired by their presence, she designed an interactive device in the form of a folding screen, reinterpreting these neglected materials.
Later, she designed a second polyptych screen, this time made of transparent Plexiglas, onto which interactive digital projections could be displayed. The choice of the material was influenced by the omnipresence of Plexiglas panels in public spaces during the pandemic. On this translucent surface, she often saw her own blurred reflection — an ethereal image that caught her eye. In it, she perceived a paradoxical sense of simultaneous proximity and distance between individuals, characteristic of this unique period.
The interactive digital installation operates as follows: when no audience is present, the transparent folding screen remains inactive. Upon detecting a presence through the surveillance camera integrated into the installation, animated clouds emerge, projected onto its surface. These projections incorporate silhouettes of the audience as remanent images in constant transformation. Over time, these forms evolve into “electronic clouds” with psychedelic colors, blending thermal captures of the audience into layered visual compositions that play in an endless loop.
If a viewer remains still, the clouds gradually dissipate, revealing a 3D animation generated by a particle system—a “revelation tree”—which progressively fills the folding screen with white.
Video captured by the audience, exhibition at the Notre-Dame-de-Grâce Art Center, 2023. Video Credit : Lixia Jia.
A viewer stands between the large wooden folding screen and the transparent screen, triggering an interactive reaction with the projections, 2023. Photo Credit: Keyun Li.
At the same time, on the large wooden folding screen, Dali recorded her subjective impressions during interactions with the audience. Resulting from this experience, these cloud-like emotional landscapes—fluid abstractions of visitors’ silhouettes and her emotional responses to their presence—take the form of vast expanses of color, evoking the metamorphosis of clouds in the physical world.
The sound environment was composed by Christophe Cinq. It weaves together monks’ chants, Tibetan bells, and ambient drones. When the revelation tree appears, gamelan percussion resonates, immersing the audience in a meditative atmosphere. In addition to this sonic contribution, Christophe also programmed the interactive system of the installation using TouchDesigner, a program used here to synchronize the audience’s movements with the evolution of the projections.
Christophe Cinq testing the programming of the interactive projections on the transparent folding screen. Hexagram residency, exhibition at la Chaufferie, 2022. Photo Credit : Dali Wu.
Freedom of Choice for the Audience
Contemplant les Nuages sparked numerous interactions with the audience, particularly during its exhibition at the Maison de la culture Notre-Dame-de-Grâce. Visitors are free to remain still in front of the folding screen to trigger the tree animation or step back to observe the cloud drawings. This mechanism of free choice highlights the ever-present potential for new possibilities in every moment of life.
Dali Wu is a visual artist and illustrator, currently pursuing a doctorate in art studies and practices at UQAM. She holds a DNSEP from the Haute École des Arts du Rhin and a DNAP with honors from the École Nationale Supérieure d’Art in Limoges. She also studied graphic arts at EPSAA in Paris, France.
With over 11 years of experience in the visual arts, Wu has gained international recognition, winning 35 awards and exhibiting her work in festivals and galleries worldwide. Her research and creations have been published in renowned art journals and developed in collaboration with institutions such as Springer, Disney, DegreeArt, Tencent, ZCool, Hiiibrand, Guokr, the Nanjing Metro, Campus France, MTL en Arts, and Stella Musica.
Wu’s works, characterized by an introspective and dreamlike approach, weave a dialogue between tradition and modernity, East and West. Beyond her studio practice, she has expanded her career through artist residencies, conferences, and workshops, demonstrating an unrelenting drive to explore diverse techniques and contribute to the evolution of contemporary art.
Acknowledgments
Research Supervision: Éric Letourneau (UQAM)
Sound Composition and TouchDesigner Programming: Christophe Cinq
Institutional Support: Hexagram-UQAM, Maison de la culture Notre-Dame-de-Grâce (Monkland site), Multitechnique Workshop of the UQAM School of Design
