Yayoi Kusama, an artist known for mirrored infinity rooms, designed the mirrored sculpture room titled Clouds (2019) at Summit One Vanderbilt. The floor-based constellation is one of many interactive experiences at NYC’s newest observation deck. It is one of the rooms visitors will navigate through before reaching the outside observation deck and ascending glass elevator. Visiting three times before it officially opens to the public on October 21, 2021, I noticed that this room was one of the least visited and least photographed rooms. Visitors may not realize that it is designed by the famous artist, Yayoi Kusama. Unlike other rooms at the Summit, Clouds also requires visitors to move around and purposefully get low to see new angles of the views and room.
Kusama’s sculpture installation of almost a hundred different mirror-finished, stainless-steel forms invites visitors to see unique perspectives by changing their own position or location in the space. Kusama’s Clouds, unlike her infinity mirrored rooms, draw your eye away from the walls and downward into the reflections of these seemingly light and airy metallic cloud sculptures. There are a variety of shapes and sizes in two sectioned-off areas that allow you to walk next to, behind, or between the two areas of sculptures meant to envelop viewers in the feeling of boundlessness.
Kusama’s sculpture installation of almost a hundred different mirror-finished, stainless-steel forms invites visitors to see unique perspectives by changing their own position or location in the space. Kusama’s Clouds, unlike her infinity mirrored rooms, draw your eye away from the walls and downward into the reflections of these seemingly light and airy metallic cloud sculptures. There are a variety of shapes and sizes in two sectioned-off areas that allow you to walk next to, behind, or between the two areas of sculptures meant to envelop viewers in the feeling of boundlessness.
My favorite angle for photos here requires the photographer to get low with the cloud-like shapes merging close to the lens with the subject standing in front of the window. I also edited this quick TikTok video to include a before-and-after comparison of the photographer showing the difference in perspectives, from a straight-on view verses a lower angle, and how the sculpture changes as a result. What do you think of Clouds?