Omega Centauri is the name of the biggest star cluster in the Milky Way visible to the naked eye. The figure 3.9 denotes the ’apparent magnitude’ – a scale used to measure how much light an astronomical object emits from the Earth’s perspective.

A cosmic cloud constellation floating in the forests of Charlottenlund, Denmark and housed in the permanent collection of Ordrupgaard, the suspended sculpture Omega Centauri 3.9 invites visitors to reconsider and reflect on what has precedence in the contemporary world and why. Participants are inextricable from the surrounding environment in both cause and effect, bound in the contained ecology reflected in the cloud’s planes. They see themselves as part of this ensemble, as the lines of the structure help draw seemingly impossible connections—between the clouds and surrounding forest, between cyanobacteria and PM2.5, and between the spider/web and the cosmic/web that informs life from subatomic particles to the solar systems of the universe.

Composed of habitat-like geometries, Omega Centauri 3.9 reveals the elemental properties that—through the very essence of our lives—seem to perpetually recede from view. Irregular forms evocative of a Weaire-Phelan structure of foam and soap bubbles act as an invitation to engage from diverse bearings, as iridescent planes reflect and translate the sun’s rays in a play of light and modulating hues, and the web-like structures set within the sculpture resonate with the woven habitats of spiders and the cosmic web.

We are living in a moment of environmental crisis, defined by rising temperatures, extreme weather events, and the accelerated extinction of a growing number of species, especially invertebrates. Clouds are also disappearing, replaced by new clouds of toxic pollution particulates: ash, black carbon, organochlorine pesticides, sulfur dioxide—particles that populate what once was simply wind and rain, throwing into question the very fibre of our world. Every change within the web of life is refracted in this fragile tension, calling for new ways of thinking, feeling and knowing multiple atmospheric threads of interconnection. Through this composition the question is posed: how might we float differently, re-examining freedom of movement whilst preserving earthly cloudscapes across planetary boundaries?