Kelley O’Leary + Clouds of the American West
on-off.site is excited to share our new feature on artist Kelley O’Leary and her latest project, Clouds of the American West.
We first connected with Kelley through our Holding Space open call in the summer of 2020 and became big fans right away. We were especially interested in how she was exploring the interconnectedness of digital and physical space in her practice—just like us—and knew that we wanted to collaborate with her one day.
For Clouds, Kelley pushed her investigation of the digital-physical overlap further by driving to visit 11 data centers in the western US in search of the physical footprints of the internet. While on-site, she examined the data centers and the surrounding land holistically, capturing photos, plant and soil samples, audio recordings, and her observations.
Kelley continued to process her experience of these sites when she returned to her studio, creating works that function as excerpts of the locations she visited. Her approach was inspired by Robert Smithson’s concept of “site” and “non-site,” and we here at on-off.site were intrigued to dive deeper into how Kelley manifested this idea.
In Clouds of the American West, Kelley’s interest in the crossover of the digital-physical is ultimately an exploration of how human technologies shape our world and our experience of it.
Keep up with Kelley on her website and social media, and experience her in-depth feature NOW LIVE!
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On-site w/ KOL
It was so great to connect IRL with with Kelley at her studio in Davis, CA for our conversation. We had blast hearing about her studio playlist (it includes Arthur Russell), her past experience building Anthropologie window displays, and roaming the nearby gardens together collecting rabbitbrush.
Thank you to Kelley for your trust and generosity, and special thanks to Miguel Novelo Cruz for production support.
See you in the clouds,
SG + SS