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Jeppe Hein Smoke Chair (2002)
‘A large mirror hangs on the wall with a small bench positioned in front of it. Upon taking a seat on the bench, visitors observe their own reflections, only to find themselves enveloped in smoke moments later. A small trigger activates a fog machine within the bench, releasing smoke from small holes that surround the seat. While contemplating their reflections in the mirror, visitors see themselves disappear in a cloud of smoke.’
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Johannes Vogl Untitled (Swing) (2010)
‘Steel, car tire, fire’
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MARCK Tank (2014)
‘lcd panel, iron, video loop’
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Valie Export Smart Export (1970)
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Superflex Burning Car (2008)
‘Burning Car is a work by Superflex in which a car is being set on fire. The empty car starts to burn, the cabin is filled with smoke and fire, car-paint is bobbling, tires explodes. Towards the end the car is burned out completely.’
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Lorna Simpson Cloudscape (2004)
‘The solitary image of the black male figure whistling and enveloped by smoke appears to be a song of departure from the charnel house of the racial sublime.’
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Graham Durward Various (2009)
‘Though Durward’s Untitled paintings appear abstract, they are actually representations of burning incense. Durward chose to paint incense because of its immateriality and association to ritual. These ideas are echoed through his painting style. In Untitled, the billows of smoke are retraced with the artist’s brush, the gestures replicate both what the vapour looks like as well as its ‘real’ properties of non-physicality and movement.’
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Amol K Patil BURNING SPEECHES (2025)
‘Burning Speeches (2025) consists of a radio playing a continuous conversation as it dissolves in clouds of smoke – radio was a way to protest censorship in India through the power of underground networks. ‘Dalit artists have this art form called Powada, which they used to perform in public spaces, for protest. Now they can’t, because they can get arrested,’ he says. ‘I use this space to show that people can meet underground and share with each other. A lot of people are part of my projects now: electricians, carpenters – the relationships make the work possible.’’
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Tom Wesselmann Smoking Cigarette #1 & Smoker #10 (1980)
Oil on wood and masonite, formica base
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Rosângela Rennó Experiencing Cinema (2004)
‘In “Experiencing Cinema,” a better use of atmospherics, Brazilian Rosangela Renno revives an early 19th century phantasmagoria practice of projecting still pictures onto veils of smoke. Photographs, gathered from found family albums, cohere briefly on the smoke screen; then both image and screen dissipate, mortality again provocatively aligned with ephemerality.’
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Ho Tzu Nyen The Cloud of Unknowing (2011)
‘The Cloud of Unknowing—which the artist created to represent his country at the 2011 Venice Biennale—is set in a deserted, low-income public housing block in Singapore and incorporates eight compartmentalized vignettes, each centered on a character who is met by an unexpected ethereal smoke cloud permeating their immediate surroundings. Additionally, four screens envelop the viewer in a dense, theatrical atmosphere that further enhances the sensorial impact of the installation. The artist even used smoke machines in the 2011 Venice Biennale installation.’
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Unknown Various (?)
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Jeroen van Loon An Internet (2015)
‘An Internet by Dutch artist Jeroen van Loon questions how the internet would look if all data were temporary and ephemeral. Visualising the flow of information in the form of glass tubes filled with smoke signals, the installation is based on the complex system of glass fibre internet cables that run across the ocean floors and continents.’
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Anthony McCall Split Second (2018)
‘Split Second is among Anthony McCall’s most recent ‘solid-light’ installations, a series of pioneering works begun in 1973, in which a volumetric form composed of projected light slowly evolves in three-dimensional space in a hazefilled room. McCall regards these works as occupying a space between sculpture, cinema, and drawing: sculpture because the projected volumes must be occupied and explored by visitors; cinema because they rely on the filmic image and change over time; and drawing because each work begins as a two-dimensional drawing. Split Second consists of two separate points of light projected at different heights. The two projections – one elliptical, one flat – meet and combine to form a single slowly changing line-drawing. The projections expand to reveal a flat blade and an elliptical cone, which combine in space to create a complex field of rotating, interpenetrating planes. This uniquely atmospheric work inducts the spectator into a three-dimensional field where forms gradually shift and turn over time, creating an active and immersive experience, one in which the spectator truly completes the work.’
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Marina Gadonneix Crime Scene (2015)
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Richard Friedberg Various (2014-17)
Materials: Aluminum, Aluminum Screening
Fire Storm
Oil Fire
Black Cloud
Explosion
Twin Fires
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Wyatt Burns 100 Cigarettes Machine (2014)
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Ariella Pahlke Burning Rubber (2009)
‘Burning Rubber is a provocative re-framing of burnouts and rural car culture a filmmakers search for meaning in a disregarded and often maligned form of self-expression. Based primarily in rural Nova Scotia, Burning Rubber weaves a predominantly male car culture together with artists and the curiosity of outsiders, ultimately stimulating larger questions about identity, creativity, gender, freedom, and how we decide what is valued and given meaning as art.’
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luzinterruptus 25 Minutes of protest in the smoke (2013)
‘The night of January 31 we took to the street to “perpetrate” an intervention that we’ve wanted to carry out for some time and that night it made more sense than ever. At that time, people had taken to the streets in a spontaneous manner, to protest against the scandalous political corruption that had been uncovered by a national newspaper and which implicated, with names and surnames, the entire leadership of the Spanish government. While the powers that be were entertained, trying to “control” public order at the headquarters of the PP of Madrid, we chose a central street, close to Gran Via, and there we carried out our light/sound, 25 Minutes of protest in the smoke. The action was very simple, only a few completely harmless, small, homemade smoke bombs that are placed under 9 powerful lampposts, in order to totally obscure the most illuminated street in the area, under a dense cloud of smoke. This environment, belonging to a post-conflict zone or of a church during the hours of mass, was inviting to stay and watch as the smoke materialized the beams of light from the lampposts, forming imperfect cones in space, within which the smoke evolved in hypnotic movements. To improve the scene being staged, the smoke managed to activate all the fire alarms on Gran Via which rang for a long time, contributing significantly to the general malaise that reigned on the streets at that time.’
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Mark Tennant Various (2016-2018)
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teamLab Massless Clouds Between Sculpture and Life (2020)
‘A giant cloud floats between the floor and the ceiling within the confines of the space, as though transcending the concept of mass. Even when people push through the floating cloud and break it, it naturally repairs itself like a living thing. But, as with living things, when the cloud is destroyed beyond what it can repair, it cannot mend itself, and it collapses.’
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Ron English Cloud (2009)
‘Billboard liberator and Popagandist, Ron English, was responsible for hiring the skywriting plane that spelled out the word “cloud” five times over the city this morning. In an interview earlier this year, English said “these actual clouds will be for sale,” but there’s still no word on pricing for the artistic condensation.’
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Yang Yongliang Cigarette Ash Landscape (2011)
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Frederico Surace Explosion for War Film (2017)
‘For this project i create a 3D simulation for Visual Effects Explosion rappresentation.’
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Judy Chicago A Purple Poem for Miami (2019)
‘Chicago began her Atmospheres series at the end of the 1960s but halted its production in 1974. The artist reignited the series in 2012, but on a larger scale. A Purple Poem for Miami is her sixth Atmospheres performance in seven years.’
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Joschi Herczeg and Daniele Kaehr Explosions (2011)
‘In these photographs by Joschi Herczeg and Daniele Kaehr, the artistic team captures a single, exciting moment in a mundane, domestic surrounding. For this series Explosion, the team synchronized a camera with a custom-built detonator to snap a photo at the exact moment of explosion.’
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The YES! Association SMOKING AREA (2012)
‘We installed a sixty-square-foot Smoking Area inside the Hessel Museum of Art, which shows a possibility for changing, or disrupting, the legal structure within an institution. The floor is painted with solid yellow lines the color of traffic signs and the cordoned-off space (modeled after such areas in train stations and other semi-outside public spaces across Europe) boldly reads SMOKING AREA in large font, complete with graphics of two lit cigarettes. The museum had to reevaluate. “Do you actually intend to have people smoking in there? Or is it just a painting?” There’s no way to really answer that. Visitors are activated; they are asked to make a choice: to smoke or to not smoke. We borrow from Hannah Arendt when we say: There is no doubt that the ability to act is the most dangerous of our abilities and possibilities.’
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Eyal Gever Large Scale Smoke Sim (2013)
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Kristoffer Myskja Smoking Machine V2 (2016)
‘The fact that the real “smell of fear” was given off by Smoking Machine tends to disprove the most commonly traded trope about fragrance: that reactions to it are purely “subjective” and “personal”. Few people would have reacted to the smell of cigarettes as though it were the very reek of the Antichrist during the Mad Men era – or even the 80s. The aversion is an acquired, cultural reflex.’
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Otto Piene Dynamisches Volumen (1961)
Oil, smoke and fire on canvas.
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James Benning Twenty Cigarettes (2011)
‘In Benning’s “Screentests” we watch 20 individuals, each of them smoking a cigarette. James Benning is well-known as the structuralist and documentarist who introduced the dimension of cinematic time into the landscape. One take lasts exactly three minutes, or the time it takes for a train to pass through a Californian landscape. This time round it’s people who determine the length of the takes by smoking a cigarette. They stand among walls and shelves and only their movements, which they try to control, and the movement of the smoke, which they can’t control, stipulate the coordinates of the filmic space. Benning makes a screenplay out of this and surprises us by once again creating something entirely new out of little more than smoke.’
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simtec CFD simulation of fire and smoke propagation in the National Museum of Contemporary Art in Athens (2012)
‘The health and safety system of the National Museum of Contemporary Art in Athens was studied by SIMTEC, to evaluate the effectiveness of its standard and emergency HVAC systems. The building is a former industrial brewery and many of its art exhibits, were created with flammable materials. The basement, ground and second floor constitute the three major exhibition rooms and were modeled along with the lobby, the restaurant, the museum shop and the escalators. The network of fire sprinklers was modeled at their exact locations on the ceiling and the walls. The risk associated with their failure was estimated, considering three cases of sprinkler water capacity: (a) nominal, (b) partial and (c) empty.’
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Daniel Schulze For Those Who See (2010)
‘For Those Who See is a 2010 installation by Berlin-based artist Daniel Schulze that relies on a 7×7 grid of audio speakers to generate rings of fog that shoot upward from the device. The vortices appear for only a second or so, but are distinct enough that Schulze could then translate digital signals into fleeting visual patterns. The installation was a jury recommended work at the 14th Japan Media Arts Festival and won the audience award at the Create10 Student Design Competition.’
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Tony Oursler The Influence Machine (2000)
‘The Influence Machine is a multimedia installation which is staged outdoors. The work is comprised of seven video projections, each with its own audio track. The videos are projected onto a building and the trees that surround it. In addition, smoke machines are used to create a mass of smoke, onto which a video of a medium is projected. This medium speaks a garbled set of sentences in which it attempts to contact the technological pioneers Edward Gaspard Robertson and John Logie Baird. The other video projections include a talking light, a chorus singing and a technician’s hand.’
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Olaf Brzeski Something terrible stirs (2009)
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Yao Chung-Han Electronic Monster #3 – On the Hour (2017)
‘Electronic Monster #3 – On the Hour combines real time mechanical sounds and music produced by the artist. A mechanical smoke machine has been rigged to trigger every hour, filling the space and creating an image of a beast that changes in scale – an experience designed by the artist to draw attention to architectural framing that holds the image.’
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Claes Oldenburg Fagend Study (1975)
Lead and Cor-Ten Steel filled with Polyurethane Foam
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Olaf Breuning Smoke Bombs (2012)
‘Swiss visual artist Olaf Breuning places no limits on his medium of choice, expressing his artistic vison through peformance art, sculpture, drawing, photography, installation and film. My favorite of his work are these precisely staged photos of various smoke bombs, fireworks and other colorful objects arranged on a loose framework. The pieces have occasionally been lit as part of a “happening” such as his site-specific smoke installation at Station to Station in New York.’
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Laurent Grasso OttO (2018)
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Liz Magor Humidors (2004)
polymerised gypsum, tobacco
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Gwenessa Lam 368House Fires (Reverse Image Search 2015-16) (2016)
‘Lam’s video loop, 368 House Fires, presents repeated “still” images of a house on fire as flames transform the two-storey structure into a blazing inferno. The fire is advanced enough to be dramatic and reveal the house’s architectural form, but not so far along that the structure is unrecognizable. The animation, composed of 368 flashes of the same image in different sizes, spans less than two minutes and mimics the quick, glancing views of a digital search while simulating the flame’s flickering, burning assault.’
*
p.s. Hey. ** Adem Berbic, Hi. Well, I’ll never read the original French ‘Tomb’, but I will stand up for the English version however inappropriate its finessing might be because it’s great as heck. Unfortunately Guyotat’s greatest books are basically untranslatable, so they’ve been translating the more direct, more autobiographical ones like ‘Coma’, which are certainly worthy but not him exploding his genius. Apparently the new, last novel of him just published here is basically impossible to understand clearly even in French. Yum. My thanks to Pierre too. ** Steve, ‘Teenage Sex …’ isn’t here yet, but I assume it will be. Curious indeed if that’s true about ‘Frisk’. I haven’t heard that before. Yes, RT’s distributor is setting up the US streaming for the film right now. It’ll definitely be on at least one of the big, accessible platforms, but I’m not sure which yet. This weekend … seeing some art with visiting pal Bruce Hainley and Zac, Thomas Moore arrives for a visit tomorrow, maybe see a film, not sure which. Looking forward to the ep. ** _Black_Acrylic, Summer has a lot to answer for, that’s for sure. The 22nd will be here before you know it. That’s my look-on-the-bright-side side in high gear. Yes, you and ‘RT’. Keep your ears peeled when you watch the intro video we just recorded yesterday. Good, be our ‘Shards’ on Netflix pioneer and spread the news. ** Dominik, Hi!!! Mm, no, from the ones I’ve visited, Japanese parks tend to be smaller. More packed. I mean excluding the two Disney parks. They’re, of course, giant. So many reasons not to go jogging. That’s beautiful about the new discovered door, wow. Is it also useful? Not that it needs to be to be charismatic. Love making my next lit cigarette a work of art, G. ** Hugo, Hi. Well, my blog is ravenous when it comes to comments. NYC, so soon! Wow! And happy birthday slightly in advance, I’m assuming. 23 is an excellent starting gate. Everyone, Anyone out there have some NYC recommendations for the soon to visiting Hugo? Have a blast if I don’t confer with you before. ** fish, Hi, fish, welcome back! Oh, I have a kind of personal problem with generalisations and that includes collective identity. I mean I’m as gay or queer as you can be, and that certainly has a strong effect on what I choose to write about, but other than that my being queer doesn’t feel overly important to me. It’s just one of the things I am. So that’s what I mean, I guess. I have total respect for people who find value and power in seeing themselves as part of a collective identity. It’s just never worked that way for me personally. Does that help? You doing good in general? ** Thom, I think you won’t regret taking a Guyotat plunge. But nothing is certain in this life of course. Ooh, lovely about incorporating R-G’s writing into your drone piece. The idea is savory. I hope the zine launch goes extremely well. Please let me how that went if you feel so inclined. Otherwise, yeah, rest up. A chill weekend seems to be in the offing on my end. ** Fionn, Hey! Welcome, and thank you for de-lurking. Sherberty is such a good description of ‘EEE’. I’ll quote you the next time that book comes up. I don’t know know ‘La Chatte à deux têtes’. I mostly know Nolot from his acting. Interesting, I’ll see if I can find it. Huh, I had read that the last Cine X in Paris closed, but I just checked and you’re right. There’s one in Clichy. And it’s even been renovated and enlarged. Wild. I’ll go mosey around there. Nice to get to talk with you. Obviously come back and share whatever you want when/if the mood strikes. ** laura w, ‘Eden Eden Eden’ is a lot shorter than ‘2066’ for one thing, thank goodness. ‘Four Nights of a Dreamer’ has finally been restored after ages, but I don’t think it has gotten around very much. It’s among my favorite Bressons. Festivals like to premiere films or at least show films that are both new and seem destined for buzziness amongst the general population, and we don’t qualify anymore. Oh well. Early happy birthday! I hope something special comes up. I guess you have two days to find that. I always do as little as possible on my birthday. Zac’s birthday is next week too. We’re just about at the moment when Parisians empty out and go to their summer homes or whatever for the rest of the summer. So it’s still lively-ish. But next week the stores will start closing for their vacations, and I have to remember to stock up on cigarettes this weekend. Thanks for making me remind myself. ** politekid, Hi! Before I forget, is there any way you could seen me a pdf or its equivalent of your book? The physical book still hasn’t arrived, and I fear that the always unreliable French mail system might have eaten it. Can you? I’m dying to read it. I don’t what a&e means, but I assume it’s not a good place to spend hours. I hope sleep is starting to break your door down. Sucks, sorry, pal. I don’t think ‘Tomb’ is going to get a new translation, and I swear to god it’s totally excellent in its current English form. Come over and go to Parc Asterix with us in October when they do their Halloween makeover. It’s actually really good with haunted houses and everything. I wait anxiously for it every year. I agree that you need to fucking write, so get your life and finances or whatever in order, sir. My weekend should be somewhat solid and nice and maybe not more than that, but that’s just fine. I’m not sure that I’m interested enough in Charli xcx to listen to her when she’s not doing high energy dance/pop music, but I guess I should find out. ** Thomas Moronic, Hi, T! I did see Guyotat do a reading at the Pompidou when I first moved here. It was dreamy. I’m way around and read to hang and do whatever as soon as you’re ready! Safest trip! xo. ** sal, Hi! Oh my god back to you. That’s amazing: those downloadable Guyotats. I think you just saved some lives. Everyone, Rather huge news: Kindly and wonderfully nefarious sal can hook you up with free pdfs of Guyotat’s ‘Tomb …’ and ‘Eden Eden Eden’! Quite possibly the only way you’r going to get to read them unless you already have them or have big bucks to buy the o.o.p editions. Here’s ‘Tomb …’. And here’s ‘Eden Eden Eden’. Grab them, seriously! Thanks a billion, sal. Spectacular weekend to you! ** HaRpEr //, Me too. ‘Tomb …’ is significantly greater than ‘Idiocy’ if you ask me and if you’re setting priorities. I mean teaching the English language. Or that’s the gig my friends have. I’ll ask them or at least one of them as soon as I see them. Enjoy trans pride. Do they celebrate it in the usual way with a parade and speeches and, I don’t know, dancing and stuff? It sounds promising. Have so much fun and empowerment and all those necessary things. ** Ezra, Hey, Ezra. Well, it has a lot of Algeria in it, that’s one thing for sure. I’ve never been to either Morocco or Algeria. Weird. I think I’ll wait until it’s not hot there, if it ever is. Don’t like heat. Wow, that’s quite a party. I hope they don’t trash the place unless you want them to. All the luck winning over the young cokehead’s heart. Sounds worth the old college try. Wow, if you survive, let me know how it went. Your Saturday is definitely going to wipe the floor with mine. ** voskat, Hi! Please tell Laura I miss her too if she isn’t directly reading those words. I’m guessing you were listening to ‘Horse Rotorvator’. My favorite Coil. Sweet. ** Okay. Smoke ’em since you have ’em this weekend. See you on Monday.
Pierre Guyotat Tomb for 500,000 Soldiers
Now available in North America 