An electrical cloud streaming with silver beads of ‘rain’ that double as pull-strings to turn on lights dazzled at the Nuit Blanche contemporary arts festival in Calgary, Canada on September 15th. ‘Cloud’ by Caitllind Brown is a life-sized art installation made of over 6,000 burnt-out and illuminated incandescent light bulbs.
Calgary-based artist Brown created the installation for Olympic Plaza as one of ten artists selected for the city’s first Nuit Blanche festival. Designed to be seen at night, the installation makes use of both live and dead light bulbs to capture the variegation of light and darkness within clouds.
The piece was constructed using a steel frame and wire mesh to which the thousands of bulbs were attached by hand.
Visitors to the installation stand beneath the cloud and pull on the strings to illuminate and darken various areas within its mass of glass. Check out some beautiful photos of the piece in action at CollabCubed.

