Best of ATL Block Party: Meet Phil Proctor

“I love Atlanta because I can live in this hub of culture and creativity.”

To celebrate CL’s annual Best of Atlanta issue, and our forthcoming Block Party, the Goat Farm Arts Center curated a physical manifestation of the best the city has to offer. The six chosen installations will imagine a future world based on plausible present technologies, ideas, or milieus. Expect an ambitious cyberpunk-inspired future Atlanta presented in way that has never been done before. The installations for BOA do not deal with the past, but rather what is on the horizon. We’ll be posting interviews with the participating artists leading up to the event. Previous: Ian Cone.
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? We spoke with long-time Atlantan Phil Proctor — a sculptor and weather worshipper — about his autonomous solar powered thundercloud, “Cumulon.” The 15-feet-tall cloud will soon be hanging on our beloved South Broad Street. In his own words, “the asymmetry and force of natural phenomenon intermingles with mathematical logic in beautiful abstraction.” We literally couldn’t have said it better ourselves.
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? Please tell me your name and what ‘hood you’re from.
? I am a professional sculptor and public artist. I’ve been working in Atlanta for the past 13 years.
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? Tell me more about yourself — who are you and what do you all do?
? I have a 10,000-square-feet studio near downtown Atlanta. I have executed public and private art commissions throughout the Southeastern U.S. and Eastern Europe.
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? What is the title of your piece?
? My sculpture is called “Cumulon.” The work is a abstraction of a cumulonimbus thunder cloud. This work is totally autonomous and can operate anywhere there is sunlight.The power and beauty of a summer thunderstorm is an event we can all associate with summers in the south. For me, the annual recurrence and consistence of the summer storms is a marker, recording the passing of time.
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? What is the best thing about Atlanta?
? I love Atlanta because I can live in this hub of culture and creativity and still be in the South with the heat.
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? CL’s Best of Atlanta 2015 Block Party. Free. Fri., Sep. 25, from 6-11 p.m. South Broad Street, between Martin Luther King Jr. Drive and and Mitchell Street.