Most people know Andy Warhol for his colorful portraits of celebrities like Marilyn Monroe, Campbell’s Soup cans, and the images that helped define the Pop Art movement.
But one of his most unusual creations does not hang on a wall.
Inside Cameron Art Museum’s Studio One gallery, dozens of large, silver, pillow-shaped forms float between the floor and ceiling. Visitors can walk among them, touch them, and send them drifting in a new direction.
“It is not art in a frame. It’s not still, and it’s not something behind a rope that you’re not allowed to touch,” said Ben Billingsley, curator of exhibitions and collections at the Cameron Art Museum. “This is a fully interactive experience.”
The installation, Andy Warhol: Silver Clouds, offers a museum experience that is playful, unpredictable, and constantly changing.
The rectangular clouds are made from Scotchpak, a shiny, lightweight material that resembles Mylar. They are filled with a mixture of helium and air, while fans stationed throughout the gallery help keep them moving.
“You’re allowed to touch, move inside and around them and interact with them,” Billingsley said. “You can see yourself reflected in the surface. It’s really not art the way you expect it to be.”
Another side of Andy Warhol
Billingsley said the artist’s career was far more varied - and sometimes more political - than his most famous images suggest.
Warhol created works focused on car crashes, burning buildings and death. Later in his career, he also produced portraits of members of the LGBTQ community, including transgender activist Marsha P. Johnson.
“I think he was more political and more socially aware than anyone gives him credit for nowadays,” Billingsley said.
Silver Clouds grew from Warhol’s experiments with three-dimensional art and his desire to create something that could move.
Warhol began making sculptures modeled after commercial shipping boxes, including crates of Brillo pads and other household products. After receiving a harsh review from a prominent minimalist sculptor, Warhol did not retreat from sculpture.
Instead, Billingsley said, he leaned further into it.
“He did talk about wanting to make things that moved - like a sculpture or a painting, in his words, that could flow,” Billingsley said. “I think what he really wanted was to make art that was about something other than just a reproduction of the world. He wanted to make it more of an experience.”
Warhol worked with Bell Laboratories engineer Billy Klüver to develop the floating forms. Scotchpak was an industrial material originally designed for food packaging, but its strength and light weight made it suitable for Warhol’s experiment.
The artist initially considered creating rounded, cartoon-like clouds, but the seams proved difficult to perfect. The rectangular pillow shape became both more practical and part of the work’s distinctive appearance.
The original Silver Clouds installation debuted at New York’s Leo Castelli Gallery in 1966. The version at Cameron Art Museum was produced under authorization from the Andy Warhol Foundation.
Learning how to play again
Billingsley expected children to enjoy the exhibit. What surprised him was the reaction from older visitors.
“What has really moved me deeply is looking at my older friends walk in and just light up with expressions of joy,” he said. “Watching adults, especially older adults, learn to play - to be free like that again - has just been absolutely joyful.”
Each visitor has a different experience because the installation never remains exactly the same.
The clouds float at different heights, slowly losing helium over time. Some gather in one area, while others drift toward the ceiling or settle closer to the floor.
“They kind of have minds of their own,” Billingsley said. “They’re really at their best when there’s a group of people, at least two or three, walking through the room and interacting with them. It really brings the whole thing to life.”
Museum staff reset the gallery each morning and maintain the clouds throughout the exhibition.
Billingsley compared the process to caring for something alive.
Art for people who do not consider themselves “art people”
For someone who does not regularly visit museums, contemporary art can sometimes feel inaccessible - or as though there is a correct way to understand it.
Billingsley believes Silver Clouds helps remove that pressure.
“This show really breaks down the idea that art is something that isn’t for you and you cannot touch,” he said. “You’re not just staring at something. You get to move in the space. There’s a physicality to it. There’s the act of play and having fun.”
He added that it is “almost impossible not to giggle at least a little bit.”
The installation also challenges assumptions about what materials can be used to create art.
Scotchpak was never intended to become part of a museum exhibition. It was developed as an industrial packaging material similar to the silver bags found inside boxes of crackers and other processed foods.
But that is part of the point.
“People think art is only oil paint on canvas in a gold frame on a wall,” Billingsley said. “We don’t think about the fact that you could be creative with anything.”
He compared Warhol’s use of unconventional materials to Wilmington artist Minnie Evans, who created internationally recognized works using materials as simple as crayons and cardboard.
“To me, that’s what this show really is - that art can be anything,” Billingsley said. “It’s not about the material. It’s about how you think about it and how you use it.”
A limited opportunity to experience the clouds
With the exhibition closing September 27, Billingsley said visitors should not continue putting off the experience.
“If you are feeling uninspired, if you’re feeling bored, it’s different at the very least,” he said. “It’s something that is not your everyday experience.”
Visitors expecting a room where people silently stare at framed pictures may be surprised.
“This is a room that’s not like that,” Billingsley said. “You might engage with your friends. You might have fun just playing around with other people. You’ll see little kids and elderly people acting the same way and just enjoying.”
As the final days of the exhibition approach, Billingsley admits he is becoming a little sentimental about seeing the clouds leave.
“When I finish filling the clouds, I do feel a little bit like, ‘Okay, I helped make a little bit of happiness in this place,” he said.
Andy Warhol: Silver Clouds remains on view at Cameron Art Museum in Wilmington through September 27, 2026.
