'6 Elements of Installation' BA Dissertation [distinction]1994
An examination [ theory / appreciation ] of the specific areas of installation
art that are related to core fundamentals of Architecture: space - light - surface
- form - shelter - structure - context - elements - etc.
Installations are usually generated in relation to a specific context , be it
urban, rural, or gallery.
The process by which the artists produce some of their works and the frequently
finite existence of the pieces excites me. The element of Interaction both by
the artists and the spectator interests me.
INTRODUCTION
ELEMENT 1 SITE-SPECIFITY : ELEMENT 2 TEMPORALITY
: ELEMENT 3 CEREBRAL
ELEMENT 4 INTERACTION : ELEMENT 5 PROCESS
: ELEMENT 6 PHOTO-RECORD
CONCLUSION
There can be a fine boarderline between Architecture and Art. Architecture
does sometimes resemble the forms of sculpture,(and indeed could be viewed as
sculpture) ,and Art does sometimes resemble the built form, which is the end
result of architectual endeavor. The division of the two is in the attitude
of the beholder. My observations of this division have lead me to discovering
the field of Installation Art which seems to embody, within its makeup,the very
essence of architecture.In its physical manifestations, what I view as Installation
Art, all have a direct corelation with what I recognise as the core fundamental
properties of Architecture. It is these so called ‘fundamentals’ that
form the body of my investigation with both there physical and intellectual
relationships to both Architecture and to Installation Art.
Installation Art may have as many topics within its agenda as there are people
with points to make or ideas to deal with working in the medium. However the
majority of contemporary makers of installation, tend to work primarily with
in an urban historical and social context which suggests that relationships
to our built environment are close to hand, be they primary or resultant relationships.
The medium differs from other artistic traditions in key ways which seperates
it from them. It can be viewed as an expression of Gesammtkunstwerk, whose concept
is that of a ‘total work of art’. Its very existence in the visual
arts is a product of the visual arts. It is in a sense a hybrid of a vast spectrum
of disciplines, as "It grows out of the individual narratives presented
by architecture, painting, sculpture, theatre and performance"1 . It is
also important to note that it is not only artforms that make up the ingredients
of Installation, as contained within its fabric exists strong influences by
art movements such as Concept Art, Land Art and Dada.
Many people have little idea of what I’m on about when I mention the subject,
as indeed I did not before realising that it was what I was trying to write
about with out knowing it. I wish then to examine Installation Art with an overview
of its relationships to architecture. The main focus being an investigation
into what the essence of Installation Art is, by an examination of its wide
spectrum through examples which speak most clearly to me about its apparent
merits, thereby describing through analysis. It is then the following ‘Elements’
which I am proposing group together in making up the description of Installation
Art...
"Sculpture should bear a direct relationship to the space around it".
Ruskin.2
Ruskin saw sculpture as an essential element of his architectural projects as
can be seen when experiencing his buildings. The decoration becomes part of
the whole aesthetic helping to shape the visual effect of the building. This
sculpture forms an integeral part of the building as it is located within the
very fabric of the building. It is inseperable. It’s site is the building
and the building, in part, is its sculpture. A symbiotic relationship.
For me the heart of Installtion Art must be the realisation of ‘site-specifity’.
The very term ‘Installation Art’ suggests the element of installation
to be a fundamental requirement. Installation is after all the process of placing
something in an environment which implies that it has a direct relationship
with that environment. The difference between an ‘installed work’
and ‘Installation’ is of prime importance. To install a work of art
is to simply locate it within an environment, and to create a piece of Installation
is to make it with a direct correlation to the environment with which it exists.
There must be a direct physical relationship to its location.
A minimalist modern sculpture which finds itself infront of a huge office building
can not be described as an Installation as it has only been installed there.
Someone has merely located it due to its ownership. Thus its faliure, in terms
of installation, lies in the lack of its physical relationship to its environment.
It will then appear to be more like a giant logo rather than a work of Art robbing
it of its possible merit. According to Thierry de Duve, Naum Gabo ‘sculpture’(1.1)
at the Bijenkorf (1954-57) in Rotterdam is one such faliure. An understanding
of the work of Gabo will however relinquish his responsability as he stated
with his brother Antoine Pevsner in there ‘Realistic Manifesto’ of
1920 that his sculpture did not shape itself from the outside, but from the
inside thereby negating any relationship to its environment.It is therefore,
in a sense, able to be located at such a site if viewed as an object, the problem
then being its association with its environment at the Bijenkorf. Speaking as
an Architect though I’m not sure that I agree with Thierry de Duve. Personally
Ifeel that the sculpture is well related to the building.
Le Corbusiers buildings also have a void relationship with their locations,
being part of the International Style. The Villa Savoie (1.2) seeming to ‘float’
above its location and hence being able to be to ‘sail’ around the
world to any site.It negates a relationship to place which is so fundamental
to Installation. As Rosalind Krauss sugessted, "it may be easier to explain
what sculpture isn’t rather than what it is"3. I’m therfore describing
what Installation isn’t to try and gain a clearer picture of what it is,
I’m not trying to take anything away from these artists, I admire them
for their works.
Sculpture is an artform of physical reality which talks through form and material
etc. and most importantly space, as Carl Andre said "Sculpture is about
seizing space and holding onto it"4 It is therefore inseperable from architecture
which shares these exact same neccessities. The difference between these and
Installation is that Installation takes all of these elements and invents itself.
The site being its essential component, as a building is landed and formed in
its own specific context, installed, borrowing the space and harbouring that
space. Andre’s ‘seizing space’ refers to space in relation to
the ‘object’, not to the environment. The importance of this element
of space can be seen in many of the examples that I have chosen to represent
the notion and impoprtance of site-specifity.
As suggested by the co-directors of the Museum of Installation in London, "The
Supremantist, El Lissitzky created what is arguably the first installation,
the ‘Proun Environment’ in 1923 (1.3). He alluded to the notion of
space as a physical material with properties such as wood or stone. Space could
therefore be turned into a form."5 He therefore,’claimed space’.The
architect builds around it and the ‘sculptor’ creates within it. Kurt
Shwitters was also building his works in parts of rooms during the same period,
gradually adding parts bit by bit to ‘realize’ the theory of the Gesamtkuntswerk.
The example shown is called ‘Merzbau’.(1.4)
Bierut born Mona Hatoum’s installation at the Mario Flecha Gallery in 1992,
entitled (or not as the case may be) ‘Untitled’(1.5), subteley encloses
spaces within the gallery using stainless steel wires as boundary elements.
This piece embodies the inherent qualities of installation. Without its environment
being present the work would not exist. Its environment is indeed a white gallery,but
it is an entirely white gallery,even the floors have turned white. This is not,I
suggest, so that the gallery receeds into nothing, but instead it becomes integeral.
The wires do not act as a support for a painting, but are the work itself. The
effect is extermely minimal, yet the result captures the energy retained within
the space that it contains. The wires pass through the walls of the environment
at times thus depriving us of whitnessing the conclusion of the tension enclosed
within the taught steel. It is this direct physical relationship with the gallery
which is its ‘site-specifity’, wrapping around the column and passing
through the walls, It exists as part of the gallery, and not within it, the
two merge into one.
Space ,which is so important to site-specifity, is indeed the source of all
matter as, "Physics has shown that all matter is born from the vacuum"5a
So physical creations which deal directly with a particular space then must
be one in the same, as the matter is originated from space and the space embodies
the matter. "The amount of potential energy in a cubic centimetre of so
called empty space,the vacuum,is immensily greater than the entire energy content
of the visible universe!"5b. It is this embodiement of that energy which
I feel in Hatoum’s piece.
Whereas Hatoum has ‘defined’ space, ‘Desireline Intersect’6
(1.6), ‘divides’ a route set in space. This response to a desireline
footpath in central Manchester slices the footpath in two, both physically and
intelectually, the notion being that people create barriers for themselves and
to overcome them you must interact with them and thus pass beyond them (a point
which I will return to in ‘Element 4’). The installation was built
as a direct response to the site using material found on the site. The environment
has thus been changed through manipulation, not through addition or dematerialisation.
The environment has been changed into a ‘place’ with the intervention
of the wall. As Andre believed, "a place is an area within an environment
which has been altered in such a way as to make the general environment more
conspicuous".7
In ‘House’ (1.7) by Rachael Whiteread which was completed at the end
of October 93 the element of in-situ space brings architecture and sculptural
installation together. The two are as important as each other. It was the most
noticable piece of Art to have been produced in 93. The Late Show even hyped
it as being, "one of the most important woks of art to have ever been produced
in Britain to date"8. This is due to the enormous publicity that it has
recieved due to public siting.The negative public reaction can not be duie to
its subject matter as it can notn possibly be concieved as scandolous to the
public conciousness. It is indeed a monument to traditional living. This aside,
I wish to consider its installational elements. The overwhelming nature of House
is its historical nature. Its process is discussed in ‘Element 5’.The
importance of its form can be seen as all, as it is a sculptural object. In
terms of installation it is the relationship of the form to its history which
is of importance. House was concieved as the encasement of space in a concrete
soild. The object would not exist as it does if it had not been located precicely
where it is in the cosmos. It could not be the ‘House’ it is today
if it were the ‘House’ of tommorow. Had the possibility of its existence
been possible earlier, then its physical reality would be different. The house
chosen would have been a different former for the concrete. It’s site-specificity
ensures that it is as we see it today.
The cerebral element of House plays an important part. It is easy to understand
the relationship that the object has to it’s history, there is a direct
visual link to its origins. This is one of the important elemenets which excites
me. The whole concept of the soild being a physical version of the space that
was once contained by a now missing shell, a negative embodiement of space.
It really is a ‘space-object’, it materialises the immaterial. David
Thorpe described it perfectly in his response to House,"If you imagine
having your mouth full of marbles or cotton wool, you have a physical sensation
of the volume inside your mouth"9.
I remember seeing, ‘She came in Through the Bathroom Window’ (1.8),
by Richard Wilson, during the time of its existence in 1989,(on telly I think).
It must have been one of the first contemporary installations that I saw. I
remember half thinking that the idea of going to all the effort of displacing
the window plane was odd yet fantastic. Its purpose was itself. Bringing outside
inside, but not really. It meant something to me. Especially as it dealt with
architectural elements. The important point is its dealing with space, it extrudes
it. The play of the installation in the usage of architectural metaphor. You
enter the building as you would always do, then as you enter the space the installation
reveals its self not just through its physical presence but through oddity.
It makes you think about the function of buidings. You can not escape the fact
that the glazing unit is itself the original. You mentally relate it to its
former location which in turn tells tou about its present location. Very simple,
very strong.
The element of light is brought to bear on this theme of glazing in, ‘Natchland’
(1.9) by Kazuo Katse at Gallery Wanda Reiff in Maastrict,1990. Katse deals with
the negative of light reflected through an ordinary window in the gallery, (as
with the negative space of House). It is the memory of the light which exists
painted on the floor .The paint though is black suggesting shadow not light,
yet the image is not of shadow, it is the memory of light. It is almost as though
it is the memory of night casting a negative night light. The work is of a philosophical
nature but is displayed as part of the gallery. It is installed in relation
to the specific environment, being painted onto it as it is. Sculpture talks
visually about light and shadow, among other elements, whereas illustrated by
‘Natchland’, installation communicates this quality but in relation
to a specific light source. The controlled light of the defined environment.
The work of Gordon Matta-Clark opened my eyes to the world of Installation Art.
After visiting the Serpentine show (summer 93) I realised that the shear energy
exposed in his work was what Art was all about for me. The creation of an objective.
This is all about process,(see Element 5). What Matta-Clark achieves in his
works is the revealing of new unthought of spaces in derelict buildings. He
trained as an architect but gave it up in order to fulfill his experimental
dreams. He invented his own artform which he called Anarchitecture, working
with existing architecture and in a sense deconstructing it to reveal new relationships
within the building, what I would suggest was ‘installing new space’
within the existing fabric. Interpreting buildings in a way not usually experienced.
Take ‘Bronx Floors:Double Doors’(1.10) for example,made in 1973. Using
a derelict house in the Bronx, New York, Matta-Clark set about remmovig the
floors around both the enterances to a doorway. In doing so he transformed the
spatial relationships which directly associuated themseles with that door. In
‘Splitting’ (1.11), probobaly his best known work, he sawed a house
in two, opening up the house to the space in which it existed. In both of these
works he installed space into the building. His concern was with altering attitudes
to buildings, "By undoing a building ...I open a state of enclosure which
had been preconditioned not only by physical necessity but by the industry that
proliferates suburban and urban boxes as a pretext for ensuring a passive isolated
consummer"10.
The same ideas are embodied in (what I presume was) an accidental ‘installation’
that I found in Hulme during its current destruction. In, ‘Construction
Detail’11 (1.12), the creation of space in relation to its locality summed
up my feelings about the destruction of Hulme as we presently saw it. The divide
as expressed in, ‘Desireline Intersect’, has here become a negative
representation of both the barrier and of the sadness at seeing it dying. The
reinforcing bars acting as a link to the past spanning the gap which then becomes
a suggestion of time. The photograph becomes a memory and record of that feeling
and object accordingly (see Element 6).
The practice of Art in the realm of Installation, as expressed through things
existing just for the sake of existing, is exemplified by the work of Siah Armajani.
His preoccupation was also with the division of sculpture and architecture (as
explored by Whiteread and Matta-Clark). ‘Bridge over a Nice Triangular
Tree’ (1.13),from 1970 fulfills the notion that the sculpture exists for
no other reason than to transport the participant along its route. This, ordinarily
is the exact function of a bridge to span over or traverse a barrier and thus
allow us to overcome the physical existence of that barrier. A bridge in the
ordinary sense has a legitimate function as with the walkway of ’Construction
Detail’. What Armajani’s bridge does though is negate this reasoned
functional aspect. Its only purpose is to transport us over a very small tree!
In so doing we form a peronal and physical relationship with that tree even
though the tree itself is totally overwhelmed by the act of doing it. The whole
construction is related to the tree and tailored for it. It is almost an act
of ceremony. A lot, or most art, is indeed produced for its own end. Each artist
choosing their own way of expressing something important to them. I feel though
that the attitude of, ‘Bridge over a Nice Triangular Tree’, expresses
this element with particular clarity.
Bulgarian born Christo Javacheff is another of those artists whose work has
a direct correlation with the sites he uses to bring his work to life. His work
relates to all the ‘Elements’ that I consider vital to the making
of an Installation. In terms of its site specificity he works both in an urban
context as with, ‘The Pont Neuf Wrapped’ (1.14), and in the tradition
of, ‘Land Art’, with the production of, ‘Wrapped Coast’
(1.15) (1969). Again the peice is its site. Christo carried out this enormous
undertaking 14.5 kilometers southeast of Sydney, Australia using one million
square feet ofsynthetic woven fibre and 56 kilometers of rope .The works finite
form is precisely dictated by the surface of the coast that it engulfs. It is
the installation of material in its location which neccesitated its installational
quality. He (and his 125 strong team of helpers) did not merely locate an object,
as say a Henry Moore is located as part of a landscape, but worked with that
landscape to physicaly transform its very self. This transformation then becoming
the net result. The Temporal Element of the lifespan of Chriso’s works
is just as an imporant part of its whole Which brings us to the consideration
of time in forming another of Installation Arts important ingredients...
"A flower that blossoms for a single night does not to us seem any less
lovely. Nor can I understand any better why the beauty and perfection of a work
of art or of an intellectual achievement should loose its worth because of its
temporal limitation", Freud.12
Temporalality belongs to the element of Time. The space-time cosmos that all
exists in. The world is a product of time. We see ourselves in a direct relationship
with time, as our existence is frammed by time. Einsteins expressions of thought
talked of the metaphysical notion that all time, past present and future exists
within the same space, therefore space can be seen to be, Time. In relation
to this concept, Temporality defines itself as a finite embodiement of that
space-time. ‘Temporal’ is a word which implies a physical relationship
to worldly things as opposed to the spiritual affairs of Metaphysics. ‘Temporary’
in its own definition talks of time as lasting for a limited period, or a defined
fraction of that Time. Thus the two consummate their relationship and become
one. As discussed in, ’Element 1’, Physics has shown that matter is
born from the vacuum, (that is space), which then becomes the physical representation
of Temporality in my analysis. The property of Time will then be taken to represent
the metaphysical notion that it records itself within its own whole.
"How long is a piece of string?" Anon. This classic phrase introduces
the next ingredient to be mixed into the meltingpot. This being the philosophical
consideration of the relationship of time to the temporal nature of some installational
works. What does the image of the word itself conjour up about insallation?
You can install something and leave it to exist for seconds, years, decades
or for many lifetimes. It can be said that all matter has finite existence therefore
everything is temporary, but I wish to talk about Installational temporality,
which, to me, suggests the link with hours, weeks and months rather than with
years, decades and centuries.
In terms of Christos work then, temporality becomes essential to the whole.
The work itself is only allowed to exist for a foreseeable finite reality, and
it is this which helps it to become what it is; a temporary installation. As
noted by Marina Vaisey, "The final work questions the whole notion of permenance
in art, for Christo’s vast environmental sculptures which take place in
the real world, have a deliberatly limited life, for a few days, at the most
two weeks" 13. It is Christos installations that excit me, I love his wrapped
sculptures, but these live on, and are of a human scale. Somehow I can relate
better to his ‘massive’ sculptures that no longer exist. You can look
at memories, and perhaps have an experience of that event, but you know that
it is now cast in past recorded time (history). This has a direct influence
upon your attitude towards it.
In the work of Andy Goldsworthy, I find a real sense of excitment. He, as with
Christo, enters the many different fields of installation. The temporality found
within his body of work is an expression of the cycle of nature which is itself
a ‘repetitive cycle of temporality’.
Goldsworthy engages nature on its homeground, working with it to define its
beauty, by exposing it through his transitional process. What defines longevity
in his work is the work itself. If the materials he uses to produce a piece
are stone then it may well last for years, but if that material is snow on a
hill, or sand on a beach,then its lifespan may be days or hours.
In the late winter of 1988/89, Goldsworthy made eighteen large snowballs (2.1)
in Perthshire and then preserved them in cold storage until July that summer
where they were displayed in the Old Museum of Transport, Glasgow. There they
were laid in line to live out there life. It took a total of five days for them
to melt, slowly revealing there individual contents throughout that time, as
each snowball was blended with a different element from nature, such as fresh
pine needles, or wilowherb stalks. "When snow melts things hidden away
emerge - evidence of time laid on the ground"14. It is this ‘evidence
of time’ which the piece deals with, both in terms of its manufacture and
its temporality. When allowed to react with the summer heat the snowballs both
come alive and begin to die at the same time. Their destiny is determined. The
work only exists as it fades away. You can visably see the passing of time as
recorded by their dematerialisation. This is as important to the work as its
process.
Five days is temporary, and so is 1/60th of a second, the rough shutter speed
of the camera that caught Goldsworthy’s installations in space-time when
creating, ‘Hazel stick throws’ (2.2), in 1980. Here he created a multitude
of mini-installations with each throw of the sticks that he made. This is so
because the camera only happened to catch just one of these mini-installations,
which by implication means that it didn’t catch all the other exact co-ordinates
of the sticks as they flew through gravitational space on their return journey
to the ground. This ‘sculpture’ has at its core a real element of
built in obselecence. There is no way (‘on earth’!) that this fraction
in time could set out to be anything but temporary. This is then perhaps an
example of installation which is the epitome of temporality. Its very inception
implies its immediate fate.
This ‘built in obselecence’, is also instilled in Matta-Clarks work.
The way he works with derelict buildings means that from the first touch or
even the first thought his work is innevitably destined to be destroyed with
the eventual transformation of the building into rubble. His interaction with
the building also adds to the temporance of that building as he frequently undermines
its structural stability. He then is part of the demolition process, but in
a controlled sense. In 1975 he was lucky enough to be given permission to work
with a building located adjacent to the Centre Georges Pompidou during its construction.
He set about burrowing through the walls and floors creating a ‘Conical
Intersect’ (2.3) for the Paris Biennial. The house he worked on was built
in 1699 and was one of the last proporties due for demolition as part of the
Pompidou modernizing programme of the Plateau Beauborg. The work was as provocative
and controversoial as ever ensuring that all who encountered it were forced
into thought.
The same is true of Racheal Whitread’s ‘House’. It has been the
reactions of the public which have helped bring it to international attention.
Or at least it is these reactions which have made it so controversial. Now that
it has been demolished during the writting of this dissertation it lies in the
memory banks of society. For me, the destruction of ‘House’ was necessary
for its completion. Many regard its destruction as a negative thing. Whiteread
herself did not want it to be destroyed. From its inception though it was always
known that it was going to be destroyed (the role of process [Element 5]is important
here), as with a Matta-Clark work. This knowledge of its imminent death added
to its worth in my opinion. It made people want to go and experience it before
its removal. It heightened its existence, as its time was limited. Its temporality
added to its ‘worth’, as it helped induce debate and thus its media
coverage which brought it to a wider public.
Architecture is something that is usually ‘built to last’, for economic
reasons more than anything else. It is not usually seen as temporary. Having
said this though ‘temporary’ architecture is designed and constructed.
The reality of this though is that it stays put for much longer than intended.
Vienna has a long tradition of building temporary structures that were intended
to exist for a year or so but in reality have stayed put. Portacabins in schools
solved accommadation problems quickly but have lasted well beyond their sell
by date in actuality. Buildings are in fact temporal but not in the sense of
Installational temporality.
Temporality can then add to the experience of Installation Art.It can be a singular
part of the whole, or the whole itself. I find its gives a real sense of excitement
to the process of involvement in installation. It also excites me when observing
the records of past temporary installations. The very knowledge that they no
longer exist I feel still adds a real sense involvement to the experience of
discovering their past history.
In many of the works which I would generalise as being installations, I find
the existence of the ‘idea’ or ‘concept’ to be as important
as the object or creation itself, that being a seperate experience. This has
strong ties with the history of twentieth century art, from which Installatiion
has grown. It was afterall Mr.Duchamp who broke through the philosophical boundaries
of the possibilities to be explored within art. As Jenny Holzer has said, "what
I liked about the early conceptual work, was that it got to become respectable
to emphasise your mind and to de-emphasize the object....there was the freedom
for art to be almost anything. It didn’t have to be a stretched canvass
covered with paint"15. Duchamp’s most honoured piece was the ‘ready
made’ ‘fountain’ (3.1) of 1917. Here he emphasised the concept
of the action and not the object, which was the visual focus. It was then the
idea that was the important element, not the signed utilitarial urinal.
This ‘cerebral’ element is not a seperate entity in the experienceing
of art. All art evokes emotion, is that not its purpose? Indeed all art is based
on the artists concept. It is the combination of cerebral thought and emotional
feeling that gives aesthetic enjoyment. What I’m trying to suggest is that
it is the dominance of the intellectual interaction with most installations
which I enjoy most. For me it is not something which is prmarily visually pleasing,
it engages me primarily through my mind not my heart. I tend to think about
it more than feel it, as I may say, "isn’t that ‘interesting’,
‘a good idea’ or ‘clever’", rather than, "isn’t
that beautiful". It is the idea as expressed through its realisation which
is most clear to me, or the thinking about how it was done which becomes foremost
in my mind. This is true of a lot of other artforms but nowhere as engaging
for me as those works examined within the body of this work (which is in itself
not an exhustive list).
The grounding of this cerebral element in installation is derived from conceptualism’s
histories. Unlike say Duchamp, contemporary ‘post-conceptualism’ installation
has realised the limited mileage of the thought alone becoming the whole, as
did Duchamp himself. Installation addresses the aesthaetics of the object in
relation to the cerebral concept instead of being anti-commodity. This is well
expressed by Jeff Koons, himself a practicioner in the anartistic field. "I
always enjoyed the conceptualism coming out of Duchamp. But I always felt for
myself sometimes that it leaned too much on the cerebral and I’ve always
enjoyed when other needs of the viewer can be met"16.
Conceptualism worked in the paradigm that the artists material could be his
‘thought’ alone. The production of visual stimuli was secondary. When
certain works by Sol Lewitt come up for sale they do so in the form of a typed
set of instructions telling the purchaser what to do. This was also the case
with the most famous of ‘conceptual art’s’ products in the 60’s
and 70’s, that of Carl Andre’s ‘Lever’ (3.2). In 1972 the
Tate could no longer resist the extreme seduction of Andre’s 120 firebricks.
They contacted him and agreed a price. Andre scribbled the request into his
orderbook. He had previously been unable to sell it when it was first exhibited
and thus had returned the bricks to the builders yard in order to get his money
back. So Andre phoned a builders merchant and and asked them to despatch 120
of their finest quality firebricks to the Tate Gallery London. Then he drafts
a letter to the curator telling him how to arrange said bricks when they arrive.
In turn the delighted currator instructs his conservation department to run
up a special green felt box to house the bricks in their long periods of storage.
It is the idea that has been sold to the Tate in reality, and not the bricks.
Where installation comes in, is in its re-focusing of importance on the object
in the aesthetic experience. The attitude of its production gives it a differnt
role in the work from that of only communicating an intellectual idea about,
say, ‘the bounderies of exactly what art is’. I am aware that this
may be construed as dangerous ground, but it is the attitude held within my
experience of observation which I am trying to communicate. Installation does
clearly talk about ideas, but not only ideas. The products themselves are, quite
often, sculpture in a more traditional sense, as with Goldsworthy, he brings
to it his touch as with the art of the artisan. They can be termed ‘installation’
as they are not permenant and have some sense of link with the immediate environment
(elements 1 and 2).The art of installation is engaged in the fusion of other
clearly defined areas within the visual arts, it is then not one but all of
them at once. The cerebral element playing its role within that cast. What I
am trying to suggest is that installation is attemting to emphasize the mind
and re-emphasize the object at the same time in direct relationship to its conecptual
history, which concearned de-emphasizing the poor old object.
The intellectual involvement in installation can further be brought into the
equation with the use of language. This most frequently occurs in the naming
process of a given work which acts as a literary sound-bite/clue to the installations
meaning. Language has a written agenda with determined meaning which means that
it may be easier to provoke the required intellectual response to the work rather
than through its visual language alone. The title of figure (3.3) insn’t
a factual reference describing what the Installation is, rather it tells us
about the idea ‘behind’ it. "The complete works of Jane Austin"
refers to the fact that the air contained within the ‘balloon’ is
the same amount of air used by a reader when reading the complete works of Jane
Austin. This volume varies with the temperature of the room as would the amount
of air vary depending on the speed of the reader. This role of language forms
not only a clue as when this idea has been realised it forms an integeral part
of the whole.
So cerebral is defined as considering intellectual rather than emotional responses.
When I view a Christo it is the ideas and the concepts that first engage me,
not so much the emotional response to the work. I find myself thinking about
how it was made and how it interacts with the object that it is wrapping. Of
course I think that it is ‘beautiful’, but primarily because of my
intellectual response to it. It is afterall why I find myself identifying with
it because it strikes a chord with my own artistic attitudes.
It is this attitude of the concept and its realisation that lead me on a mini
crusade to experience an installation near Uppermill just outside Manchester
towards the end of 1993. I had been told of reports in local newspapers which
talked about the ‘discovery’ of an old bungalow buried in the ground.
Upon further inquiry it became clear that it had been placed there by an artist
as an installation, and that it was due to be earthed over shortly. This temporality
really forced me into having to go and experience it before it was covered over.
The whole action of going to witness it was like a pilgramage for me. A day
trip to an historical event (in art). ‘Piltdown Bungalow’ (3.4) was
concieved as an installation whose cerebral interaction dealt with the concept
that this bungalow had been (and was in the future, to be) discovered by excavation.
The work was comprised of an exact replica of an ordinary industrial bungalow
from Uppermill which had been transplanted into a rural site and burried there.
It was to be left uncovered for several weeks and then covered over and left
to be found by future generations encouraging them to question its meaning.
"The work attempts to raise questions rather than answer them, and encourage
the audience to ask themselves how they view history"17. The bungalows
that it represents were non-uments (to borrow Matta-Clarks term) before the
artist transposed them into a romantic monument of the functional.
It was the whole idea of digging this hole and putting the bungalow in it, only
to cover it up for good a short time latter which appealed to me. The process,
the thought, the action. The most interesting element of being there was seeing
peoples response to the work. A group of childern turned up not knowing its
origins and jumped in the hole and climed all over it. They thought that it
was a real excavation and a real cottage and couldn’t understand the notion
of it as art once the secret had been revealed to them. Their ‘attitude’
to it was different to mine. One couple walking the family dog stopped to wonder,
but the wife seemed to be scared of it as she went off to wait up ahead while
the husband really started to question its existence. He tried to get his wife
to come back but she refused point blank.
In a way this transplantation resembles Duchamps ‘fountain’,yet it
is very different. For a start it is not gallery based. and it is a much more
involved exercise than the ‘readymade’. It questions society and its
relationship to architecture. In two hundered years time, will tourists flock
to our council estates in order to glory at the quaint rural architecture of
the late twentieth century?
What installation talks about to me through its cerebral element is not ideas
such as the bounderies of art, as with Duchamp, but the qualities of the ‘Elements’
that I am discussing in this analysis. The proporties of what I view as ‘the
fundamentals of architectural consideration’. These being philosophical
issues, and physical elements such as Light, Space, Structure, Surface, Context,
Form and Interaction etc. It is on this plane of thought that it interacts with
my mind. This is what I see as its cerebral element. It describes its own philosophical
concepts through its physical narrative. The thought is in a sense an interaction
of the mind and it is this ‘interaction ‘ which I wish to consider
next.
"The spectator, who in the act of experiencing the work, acts as catalyst
and receptor"18. Interaction is a part of everybody’s day to day life.
It could be said that all of our own personal environments are living examples
of installation. These may not be classified as art, but nevertheless they are
continually changing, and thus temporal in nature, and each is tailored to it
site, that being the architecture container, within which, each is created.
This was expressed by an artist called Collette in a work entitled ‘My
Living Environment’ (4.1),produced in New York over a number of years,
as she explains; "From 1970 to 1982 I lived as a work of art, in a work
of art - my living environment..."19. This statement, alters the emphasise
of the act of ‘living’, and turns it into an artistic reality. Our
perception is altered by Colette’s perception.
In terms of Installation Art throughout this century, Interaction, on both the
physical and cerebral level, has had an important part to play in terms of its
own genetic make-up. The making of art has often migrated from the gallery to
interact or intervene with the outside world on its own terms. It may be the
physical scale and presence of a work which forces the observer to not only
observe but to actually exist with in it or as part of it. This is the case
with the earth-work installation, ‘Double Negative’ (4.2) by Michael
Heizer in the Nevada desert of 1969. The two forty foot by one hundered foot
slots which were cut into the slopes means that, due to their enormous size
and location, the only way of physically experiencing the work is to inhabit
it like the way we think of ourselves as inhabiting the space of our own bodies.
Yet as it is a mirror image it makes us look and relate directly to our own
postion. We can see ourselves disslocated from the solipsism by the nature of
its duality. The opposing ‘self’ (or slot) on the other side of the
revine enables us to conceive the notion that we are standing looking at our
own image as a kind of ‘out of body’ experience. So it is the very
involvement or interaction within ‘Double Negative’ which brings about
its meaning. Even if that interaction is a cerebral one, as with you or I. We
are still able, I believe, to transport our mind (and hence imaginary body)
into that void through thought travel, and gain some notion of its ‘reality
relation’(the real physical version of ‘Double Negative’, as
opposed to the imagined one constructed on your mental monitor from its visual
representation, the photo).
This same scale of interaction will be a necessity with the future completion
of James Turrell’s grand project, ‘Roden Crater’ (4.3) a volcanoe
on the edge of the Painted Dessert, America. Turrell is currently working on,
or with to be more exact this vast crater overlooking the dessert. He is creating
a multitude of spaces within which certain perceptions of the cosmos can be
viewed. It is not the manipulation of the crater which is important to him,
it is what it facilitates that is important."I wanted [to create] an area
where you had a sense of standing on the planet. I wanted an area of exposed
geology.....where you could feel geologic time. Then in this stage set of geologic
time, I wanted to make spaces that engaged celestial events in light so that
the spaces performed a ‘music of the spheres’ in light"20. Turrell
is trying to combine our experiences with those of the located crater in a joint
interaction with the light and cosmos of the universe. A very powerful notion.
Turrells work has stemmed from his scientific background and a life long devotion
to the experiencing of light. The qualities of the cerebral interaction which
were evoked by ‘Double Negative’ are central to Turrells own definitions
of thought, as he explains, "Firstly I am dealing with no object. Perception
is the object. Secondly, I am dealing with no image, because I want to avoid
associative, symbolic thought. Thirdly, I am dealing with no focus or particular
place to look. With no object, no image, and no focus, what are you looking
at? You are looking at you looking. This is in response to your seeing and the
self-reflective act of seeing yourself see. You can extend feeling out through
the eyes to touch with seeing"21.
Turrell’s most recent work was the light sensory chamber titled ‘Gasworks’(4.4)
built at Dean Clough gallery near Leeds. This is a true interactively sensational
experience. The machine is comprised of a metal sphere containing light emmitting
gear with a conveyor belt leading into it. The person using it is conveyed into
the sphere head first by a technician and then subjected to 15 minutes of visual
sensual overload consisting of coloured lights and strobes. Turrell had to have
it checked by an eminent phsychoanalyst to make sure that it wasn’t going
to harm anyone mentally. The purpose of it is to transport the participant into
another dimension. The machine is just that and exists only to be interacted
with by humans. Without interaction of the physical and perceptual kind this
machine would be redundant, purposeless. It is not the idea that counts here
it is the experience.
This visual focus is the essential component of my next example. It is the actuality
of the participant being the catalyst and the receptor at the same time which
is embodied within Bruce Neuman’s 1970 installation, ‘Corridor’
(4.5). It is the ‘idea’ and the ‘action’ which combine to
make the whole this time.(It even made the front cover of a Rosalind Krauss
book!). The work is only a tool waiting to be used as with Turrell’s sensory
chamber. When approaching the television screens at the end of the ‘coddidor’
the viewer becomes the installation as their image appears on the screen via
the video camera mounted high up behind them. As they approach the screens their
image receeds. The closer they come to their own ‘reflection’ the
smaller they get. The images of these interactions with the corridor are recored
as memory of the encounters.
The only intended memory of interaction concearning Ron Hasseldon’s ‘Beldevere’
(4.6) installation in a forest is in the brain’s ‘Hippocampus zone’
(the momory storage region of the human brain, first pictured in 1991). Hasseldon
constructed a huge scaffolding structure in a forest in Dartmoor that allowed
the viewer to climb to the top of the tree canopy and see the forest from an
unaccustomed vantage point. Again this is a manufactured object which encourages
the individual to interact with it to gain a new perception of their universe.
The installation at ‘44 Bonner Rd’(otherwise known as The Showroom,)
called ‘44 Bonner Rd.’ (4.7) is another good example of the role of
the viewer bringing the work to life. Francis Cape partitioned up the gallery
space with three false walls which divided the gallery into three self-contained
rooms. Upon entering the gallery one is confronted by the first partition which
is clearly differentiated from the permenant achitecture by subtle colour changes.
Within this is an un-marked door which leads into the first room. Upon entering
it you find the second panel on the other side of it and proceed towards it
in order to find its enclosed entry/exit. When you get to the third room you
try to do the same but you find in the panel that there is no access to the
third room, it remains stubbornly firm. The narrative of the work is then revealed
only through the viewers passage and investigation within its confinds.
This narrative and revealment is also set up in Nat Goodden’s very simple
and engaging creation named ‘Shadow Piece’ (4.8) of 1974. Here Goodden
takes the utilitarian relationship between the light bulb and its switch and
introduces the ‘interactor’ into the room. On finding the room dark
the interactor searches for the light switch and turns it on. This is the act
which fuses the four elements together, for the fourth element is revealed to
be a piece of wood (which is the installation) hanging from the cieling preventing
the light from ‘touching’ the switch and hand as this intervention
blocks its journey. It is bathed in shadow. The light is turned off and the
relationship ceases.
The majority of these interactive installations then, lay dormant untill participation
engages their active role. It is the case in these examples and other works,
that the process of interaction is essential to the existence of the installations.
This ‘process’ is also an important factor in the ‘production’
of some installations, hence the writting of element 5.
"The most profound thing that I can say about a piece of work is how it
is made" Goldsworhty.22
In the production of anything, a process must be undertaken which realises the
end product. This action is then important. Is it though, more important than
the result? "Yes and no, it depends"! is the answer.
In an equation (a+b = c) there are two parts. The first is the process, and
the second is the result. Put the other way around (c = b+a) we have prescribed
what the result is that we want, and how we should go about achieving it. This
difference of emphasis on the ‘process’ or the ‘product’
is what is the key to understanding the role that process sometimes plays in
Installation.
Process in Production can be zoned into Thought processes,Forming processes,and
the process of Existence (which can lead to the eventual decay of the piece
[Temporality]). What I am wishing to consider in this element is the Forming
process by which many installations involve themselves. The thought process
is the conceptual idea that leads to the production of a piece and this itself
can be symbiotically linked to its implimentation (forming).
The first examples of this emphasis on the process started in the early fifties
with the so called ‘Happening’ in which the musician/artist John Cage
involved a number of participants (musicians, artists, poets and dancers) and
let them ‘do what they do’23 infront of an assemly of people. The
act in itself was all it was, as there was no object created which had the process
layered into it. It is the demands placed on the audience by the event in this
case which is central to the understanding of installation. It is they who are
left to construct the meaning of what is put before them. In this example we
are dealing with the area of art which has shifted from art as object to art
as process, from art as a thing to be addressed, to art as something which occurs
in the encounter between the onlooker and the stimuli. This ‘Process Art’
is a field unto itself but helps us to relate to the role that process plays
in Insallation.
Contemporary installations tend to have absorbed the histories which helped
to define the genre. The majority of works that I have selected for this examination
into Installation exsist in ‘object form’. That is to say that the
artists have always ended up with material creations as a result of a working
process. They may have set out to create an object which addresses a theme (c
= a+b) as with the work of Damien Hirst such as "In and out of love",(5.1)
or the artist could have under taken a process which resulted in a physical
product (a+b =c), or indeed a mixture of the two depending on your own understanding
of the artist and the specific piece (a+b=c ~ a+b=c). Each piece has to be examined
on its own terms of reference.
The gallery installations of Richard Long utilise the materials that he encounters
when taking long walks throughout the varying environments of the world. He
also intervenes with natural settings on a human scale in those environments.
What is crucial here is his methodology. The process is a process of investigation
and enactment which leads to a result. He sets out a route, say a walk in a
straight line from A-B, does this and memorialises it after and during its progress.
The fundamental point is that he ‘memorialises’, which implies post-process.
His work is all about what he does, walk. All his ‘objects’ relate
specifically to his prescribed process. It is not the case that he takes a walk
to find the raw materials for an installation in the Tate, but that he first
takes the walk and then expresses his findings in the gallery environment. His
poems and diagrams are acurate accounts of his walks such as "Dry Walk"
(1989)(5.2) which is the account of a walk that he did in Avon, where he walked
from one shower until the next. It lasted 113 miles. Long’s installations
occur both in the gallery (post recorded) and along his route (progressive recording).
The installations in the landscape chart his journey through space and time.
‘A line made by walking’ (1967)(5.3) is an example of how the process
and result are inseperable to the viewer. The action of walking repetedly up
and down in a straight line on the grass materialised the line. He knew what
he wanted to do first BUT the process is essential in the experience of the
work. I find it impossible to seperate the result from its manufacture. Its
layered meaning effects its observation.
A similar recording of events that are enacted in the landscape is the essence
of Goldsworthy’s work. As discussed before he works with nature as he finds
it. His process is one of chance quite often. He leaves home knowing that he
wants to make something but doesn’t know what until it reveales itself
to him in a pragmatic fashion. This is expressed in an interview with John Fowles
in 1987..."I take the opportunities each day offers - if it is snowing,
I work with snow, at leaf-fall it might be with leaves, a blown-over tree becomes
a source for twiggs and branches. I stop at a place or pick up a material by
feeling that there is something to be disscovered."24
When he finds the material its inherent characteristics and location define
the way in which it can be worked, thus creating an object. In "Floating
Hole" (1984)(5.4) he evidently came across the river with fallen leaves
and thought what he could do with them. Layered into this must be an overview
of his ideas that he carries around. The hole is one in a series that he was
dealing with at the time. What has always stood out in my experience of Goldsworthy’s
work is his process. When I look at an image of one of his pieces I do not just
see the object, but I also see the process which led to its existence. Golsworhty
actually going out and making it. I do not feel that this is just because I
have a background knowledge, I always experienced this.
In the gallery the element of process can also be felt. The painstaking way
in which objects are assembled such as "Horse chestnut stalks and thorns"(5.5)from
1989. The doorways are filled with an intricate weave of the given materials
which evokes an emotional response in relation to this tedious process. The
way in which it came into being is a part of the whole.
Another example of the process in Goldsworthy’s work combines the whole
process from construction to decay as shown previously in "Snowballs in
summer". In relation to process the whole cycle of birth and decay is the
focus on process. It is an exploration of process.
Christo’s work sets out to achieve an object, but it is how this object
is created which is as essential to its artistic merit as the object itself.
the very size of Christo’s creations infer the element of process. You
have to ask yourself about the way in which it came to being - process.
The emphasis that Christo places on the air inside "49,390 Cubic Feet Packaged"(5.6)
can serve as a metaphor for the element of preocess. It is the emphasis within
a piece of Installation upon its production which I am focusing on. I have a
friend who is participating in the wrapping of the Reichstag in 1996. The whole
process is therefore started years in advance and planned meticulously, with
permmisions having to be obtained, and money to be raised from the sales of
Chrito’s drawings. This time consuming process is integral to its whole.
The recent work of Antony Gormley is similar in so far as it takes lots of people
to materialise the given goal. The "Field for the British Isles"(5.7)
involved the community of St. Helens producing 40,000 similar clay ‘people’
together to be exhibited in the Tate in Liverpool. Again the task here was prescribed
and acomplished, yet the involvement of the community and the shear amount of
figures means that this is [again] essential to the experience of the work.Its
process is fundamental.
In relationship to Architecture then the process of design and construction
is quite often seen as being seperate from the experience of the building by
the occupant.The way in which a building is built is by the use of a set of
drawings and literature. This is seperate from the ‘design process’
which is as individual as the artists approach to his/her medium. The result
of the Architectural process is the building, and the attitude towards this
environment has through time had a certain relationship and layered meaning
imposed upon it. The majority of us are not Architects and thus not rehearsed
in the supposed ‘meanings’ embodied within the medium. This then has
an effect on the way we percieve the built environment. It is there, and has
been all our lives. Buildings are essentially containers for activity and climate
modification. We see the success of them in terms of comfort and efficiency
in doing the job that they were intended for, not so much through the eyes of
the designers phiolosophy and artistic concept which aided and influencd its
‘design’.
This then is the difference that I am proposing between Architecture and Art.
Art has this layered meaning present when relating to it. It is somehow externalised
and given a different set of rules by which to observe it. Architecture is not
externalised as it is part of our physical environment. It is interesting though
to observe the work of Sol Lewitt as when his works come up for sale they do
so in the form of the written word and not in their three-dimensional form (as
mentioned in element 3). The purchaser is given a set of typed instructions
which say how the work is to be constructed. This is the same as the way in
which a building is produced.
Inherent in several of the works which I have discussed is the notion that the
process is as important as the result, and that the result may only be a record
of that process. This record is frequently a photograph which acuratly portrays
the climax of the process. This is more often than not the only hard evidence
of the process having existed at all. So an importance is placed upon it. The
‘photo-record’ is the final element which I wish to discuss.
"A photograph is not only an image(as a painting is an image),an interpretation
of the real; it is also a trace, something directly stenciled off the real,
like a foot print or a death mask".25 Susan Sontag.
All the work that has been presented to you in this ‘book’ has been
in the form of photography and associated text. The only way in which you have
experieced the works and related what you have seen to what I have written about
is through the eye of the lens (unless that is you have witnessed their real
life presence). Photography then, is vital to the true representation of the
original. Without it we would only be relying on language produced images personal
to each individual or perhaps drawn/painted interprative images not true to
the original as they have inherent opinion and time equation problems. "Photography
is an objective slice of space-time....It’s testomony is powerful but offers
no opinion".26
I view the photographic medium as a window into the world of the original subject,
as I have suggested in earlier chapters. I feel that it is possible to picture
and feel things that surround the image. It works on the cerebral level as well
as the visual one. This is evident in War Photography and Photo-reportage with
evovative images such as the South Vietnamese Girl running naked from an explosion.
K.Jones described this ability as "a sort of umbilical cord link from the
body of the photographed thing to my gaze".27
The photograph is a memory of the actual event that was the Installation. I
have suggested that most Installation is temporary and therefore not permenant,
so memory is its residue. The photograph serves as a surrogate for the thing
that it shows. It’s transparency brings this memory into a real-time through
the viewers active mind.
The most common use of the photograph is for a facsimile/record of Installation.
It is, however also used in the medium of Installation in it’s own right
as an art form. A good example of this can be found in the work of Günther
Förg. Förg uses many mediums in his Installation to weave a tapestry
of media. The scale of his photographs of classic Modern Architecture create
a sense of external space within the confines of the given gallery space (the
umbilical cord). The photographs in their settings with their attention to various
forms of light and spatial relationships mingle and blend together with these
characteristics of the galleries in which they are exhibited. The reflective
surfaces of the glazing covering these adds to this as the reflections further
blend and subvert the images with those of the room(6.1). He frequently takes
this idea a stage further by mixing in a few large frammed mirrors.
Leaving the gallery again in physical terms (as opposed to via the photograph)
the interaction of Installation and the everyday environment as explored earlier
by Jenny Holzer is manipulated through photography by Dennis Adams in his use
of the bus shelter as site(6.2). The photographs were time orientated topical
images relating to a poltical trial at the time of their installation, the trial
of Klaus Barbie in Germany. The use of the bus shelters meant that the images
reached anyone who was unaware of thier presence and happened to encounter them
on thier daily buissiness. This externalising of Installation from the gallery
means that their effect is more subversive in so far as the viewer has not been
conditioned by the act of going into the gallery thus being provoked into thought
on the subject without expecting it. This is in a sense similar to the advertising
that would normally be in place of the photo’s. The photograph could then
be seen as being a "museum without walls" as proposed by Marshall
Mcluhan, in both its dislocation from the gallery (more commonly seen in sculpture)
and through it’s umbilical cord.
The interweaving of photography into the realm of Architecture is not common,
but does occur in Installation. This happens in a sense in the gallery, which
is Architecture. Förg’s work sucsessfully manipulates this whith his
bluring and mixing reflections and images. A work by Genevieve Cadieux takes
the site of the Canadian Pavillion at the 1990 Venice Bienniale and layers the
photograph into it’s fabric. She uses the glazing and fills the ‘frames’
with images of close-ups of the body in evocative poses.(6.3) This may suggest
the inter-relationship of man and the built environment.
My final example of the use of photography in Installations uses photography’s
precice recording ability, to confuse and blur reality. In ‘The way it
was’(6.4) (1990) Alfredo Jaar took photographs of biuldings on the opposite
side of the street and then installed them in custom made light boxes into those
same windows. In so doing he infact replaced the real live view with a photographically
frozen one of that same view. This used the inherent quality of the medium the
freeze and record a moment in time. The meaning layered into this was associated
with the division of East and West Germany having been reunited at that time
which as mentioned in Element 3 raises the importance of the title to the success
of the piece.
In terms of the ‘recorded residue’ the photograph is important to
the process of Goldsworthy. "Taking the photograph is not a casual act.
It is very demanding and a balance is kept in which documentation does not interupt
the making. Each work grows, stays, decays - integral parts of a cycle which
the photograph shows at its height, marking the moment when the work is most
alive. There is an intensity about a work at its peak that I hope is expressed
in the image." 28
I discussed ‘Hazel stick throws’ in Element 2 with its inherent temporality.
Without the photo-record it would not be the Installation it is. The camera
froze the action and layed it down on film for the rest of us to interact with,
visually. In ‘Neighbours’(6.5) the medium of Installation is fused
with photography as the photograph was the purpose and the Insallation of the
television/people were the means. Another of the Elements (Temporality) plays
its role here and is imopotant to the understanding of the photographs role.
I intended that the camera should capture the event at a specified time, that
being when the credits for the programme rolled. The whole nature of the picture
would have been falsified if I had videoed this image. The fact that it is a
photo adds to its worth. It is a reality as it did happen and was viewed with
this intenetion. If it had not been Photo-recorded then we would have no evidence.
Had it been a drawing of the event it would only have been an idea as such,
not the reality ‘stenciled off the real’.
The majority of this essay is taken from my own understading and observation
of Installation. This has come from the analysis of the works that have been
put forward through the phtotgraphs presented in books and magazines. I have
not yet found any one text which successfully explains what exactly Installation
is. My reason for saying this is to emphasis the importance that photograph
plays in the analysis of Installation. Instalation expresses itself and this
is replicated in the photograph. Hence I have been able to formulate my analysis
from these images in conjunction with my own attitudes.
"A photograph can say a thousand words".29
To wrap things up, (as with a Chitso!) I have attempted to define in general
terms what this thing called ‘Instalation Art’ is. The Elements that
I have presented are each a seperate part of a complex whole. It is intended
that any given Installation is comprised of a certain selection of these Elements
dependant on its own particular characteristics, its own genetic make-up.
A work could have a direct relationship with its site(1), be short-lived(2)
and only remain in photographic form(6) after is has been decayed, or it may
have set out to engage the brain(3)through a process(5) which directly involved
the viewer to interact (4)with it as part of this existence.
Installations on the whole are formulated around their specific environment
as with Architecture. The relationship to their site is a key to their manufacture
as they are built into specific environments intentionally. The environment
is then a generator for their production.
Installations have a life span which means that they are governed by time and
are finite within in a forseable future. They are temporary in nature and are
intentionally not built to last often being dismantled when it is time for the
next one to be materialised,especially in the gallery environment. The production
of installations is a physical realisation of the intellectual notion and once
this has been achieved and the work has lived out its life then it can left
to be remembered in our minds and through photography.
Installation works not always just within itself but also with us the audience
who bring it to life by interacting with it. In some examples it lays in wait
for us to take part with it and use us as the raw marerial for its active ingredient.
The process of production of an Installation is often as important to its meaning
as is the end product itself. We as viewers or participants can regard its production
as integral to its whole on a higher level than a question of ‘just’
how it was made. The photographic residue left by the whole creative process
of thought and production is often the only evidence left of its existence and
becomes important to its life-cycle.
In a sense Installation Art is completely open ended and has arrived where it
is today through the whole history of art which preceded it. There does seem
to be though a cohesion in its exsistence which spans all continents, and it
is the existence of this ‘cohesion’ which I have tried to analize
and discuss from my own viewpoint, understanding and practice.
Installation Art is an ever mutating Art form which refuses to have confines
placed on it and therfore is difficult to pin down. It is this characteristic
which is so refreshing to the audience. I suggest that it will continue to mutate
adding many more layers to its already richly decorated patina. It seems to
be the ever dominante art form of the ninties and this I will suggest become
very important in the future of the art history over the coming decades.
FOOTNOTES:
INTRODUCTION
1. de Oliveria, Nicolas. ‘On Installation’;
Oxley, Nicola. Art and Design, ‘Installation Art’issue
Petry, Michael 1993, pp7
ELEMENT 1
2. Ruskin, John. Quoted from lecture by Paul Hatton entitled
‘Sculpture Object Space’ given at the Cornerhouse
26/10/93.
3. Krauss, Rosalind sculpture in the expanded field4. Andre, Carl. Quoted from
lecture given by Peter Murray en-
titled, ‘objects from the Sculpture Park.Given
at the Cornerhouse, 2/11/93.
5. de Oliveria, Nicholas. op.cit. pp75a. Schaefer, Glen. Quoted from a lecture
given by my dad at
The Study Society in March 1981 entitled ‘The Universe and the Mind of
Man - Which the Reflector?’. ‘Universe with Man in Mind’ 1981
pp36.
5b. Schaefer, Glen. ibid.
6. An installation by myself made in central Manchester september 93
7. Lippard, Lucy. Quoted by in, Six Years:The Dematerialisation of
the Art Object. 1973 pp27
8. Quoted from The Late Show Thursday November 11th 1993
9. Thorpe, David. ‘Public Art/Art In Public’,Untitled winter93 pp5
10. Interview with Matta-Clark,Matta-Clark,ICC,Antwerp,1977.
11. Myself. Photograhic image of the level one walkway that used to link William
Kent Crecent to John Nash crecent. July 1993.
ELEMENT 2.
12. Freud, Seigmund Quoted from an essay called,‘On Transience’
written in november 1915 at the invitation of the Berlin Goethe
Society. First published in ‘Das Land Goethes 1914-16’.
13. Vaizey, Marina. ‘Christo’ 1991 pp8.
14. Goldsworthy, Andy. "Hand to Earth". 1990 pp116.
ELEMENT 3
15. Holzer, Jenny. Interview for "Flash Art" supplement on
Conceptual Art Nov/Dec 91 pp112.
16. Koons, Jeff. ibid pp113.
17. lost the name. brochure from the information centre by the
artist.
ELEMENT 4
18. de Oliveria, Nicholas. op.cit. pp11.
19. Wines, James. Quoted by Colette in "De-Architecture".
1987 pp170.
20. Turrell, James. "James Turrell - Air Mass".
1993 pp58
21. Turrell, James. ibid pp26.
ELEMENT 5
22. Goldsworhty, Andy. "Hand to Earth". Quoted originaliy from
‘Laws’ 1988 pp44.
23. Cage, John. "Installation Art" introduction "towards
installation" 1994 pp26.
24. Goldsworthy, Andy. "Hand to Earth" interview with John
Fowles 1987 pp162.
ELEMENT 6
25. Sontag, Susan. "On Photography" pp154 1977.
26. Postman, Niel "Amusing Ourselves To Death" pp72 1986.
27. Jones,K "British Journal Of Aesthetics" Autumn 1983 article
entitled ‘The Metaphisics Of The Photograph’ pp375.
28. Goldsworthy, Andy op.cit. pp9
29. Anon.
ILLUSTRATIONS
SITE-SPECIFITY
¬ ‘Sculpture’ Naum Gabo. 1954.
¬ ‘The Villa Savoy’ Le Corbusier.
¬ ‘Proun Environment’ El Lissitsky. 1923.
¬ ‘Merzbau’ Kurt Shwitters 1923
¬ ‘Untitled’ Mona Hatoum. 1992.
¬ ‘Desireline Intersect’ Janek. 1993.
¬ ‘House’ Rachael Whiteread. 1993.
¬ ‘She came in Through the Bathroom Window’ Richard Wilson.1989.
¬ ‘Natchland’ Kazuo Katse. 1990.
¬‘Bronx Floors:Double Doors’ Gordon Matta-Clark. 1973.
¬‘Splitting’ Gordon Matta-Clark. 1974.
¬ ‘Construction Detail’ Janek. 1993.
¬ ‘Bridge over a Nice Triangular Tree’ Siah Armajani. 1970.
¬ ‘The Pont Neuf Wrapped’ Christo Javacheff. 1985.
¬ ‘Wrapped Coast’ Christo Javacheff. 1969.
TEMPORALITY
¬ ‘Snow Balls in Winter’ Andy Goldsworthy. 1989.
¬ ‘Hazel Stick Throws’ Andy Goldsworthy. 1980.
¬ ‘Conical Intersect’ Gordon Matta-Clark. 1973.
CEREBRAL
¬ ‘Fountain’ Marcel Duchamp. 1917. (Original lost!)
¬ ‘Lever’ Carl Andre. 1972.
¬ ‘The complete works of Jane Austin’ Meg Cranston 1991.
¬ ‘Piltdown Bungalow’ 1993.
INTERACTION
¬ ‘My Living Environment’ Collette. 1970-82.
¬ ‘Double Negative’ Michael Heizer. 1969.
¬ ‘Roden Crater’ James Turrell. 1983
¬ ‘Gasworks’ James Turrell 1993.
¬ ‘Corridor’ Bruce Neuman. 1970.
¬ ‘Beldevere’ Ron Hasseldon. 1987.
¬ ‘44 Bonner Rd’ Francis Cape. 1993.
¬ ‘Shadow Piece’ Nat Goodden. 1972.
PROCESS
¬‘In and out of love’ Damien Hirst. 1991.
¬‘Dry walk’ Richard Long. 1989.
¬‘A Line made by walking’ Richard Long. 1967
¬‘Floating hole’ Andy Golsworthy. 1984.
¬‘Horse chestnut stalks and thorns’ Andy Goldsworthy. 1989
¬‘49,390 cubic feet packaged’ Christo. 1966.
¬‘Field for the British Isles’ Antony Gormley. 1994.
PHOTO-RECORD
¬‘The threat of serenity’ Günther Förg. 1993.
¬‘Bus Shelters’ Dennis Adams.
¬‘La Felure, au Choeur des corps’ Genevieve Cadieux. 1990.
¬‘The way it was’ Alfredo Jaar. 1990.
¬‘Neighbours’ Janek. 1992.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
1. Art @ Design. Installation Art 1993
2. Sharpe, R.A. Contempoprary Aesthetics 1983
3. Kennick, W.E. Art and Phiolsophy 1964
4. Various. Double Take, collective memory and current art 1992
5. Henry Moore Inst. Hand To Earth 1991
6. Goldsworthy,A. Rain Sun Snow Hail Mist Calm 1985
7. Foster,H. Discussions in Contemporary Culture 1987
8. Prentice-Hall. Photographers on Photography 1966
9. Archer,M. Installation Art 1994
10. South Bank. Walking in Circles 1991
11. Serpentine. Gordon Matta-Clark 1993
12. Vaisey,M. Christo 1991
13. Krauss,R,E. Passages in Modern Sculpture 1977
14. South Bank. James Turrell 1993
15. Wines,J. De-Architecture 1987
16. Stolintz, J. Aesthetics 1965
ARTICLES/JOURNALS
1. Untitled (ARTS NEWSPAPER) various issues 93/4
2. The Face Jenny Holzer Oct93
3. The British Journal of Aesthetics. Warburton,N. Spring 1988
4. "Das Land Goethes 1914/16" Freud,S.
5. The British Journal of Aesthetics. Jones,K. Autumn 1985LECTURES
"Sculpture Object Space" Lecture series held at the Cornerhouse
September to December 1993.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Thanks to Daniel and Richard for their guiding minds,
and to everything and everyone who make me laugh.
Laughter is the saviour of sanity.
Dedicated to the spirit of Jill Regan who diverted me onto the right path.
Copyright of audiOh!Room 1994. JANEK SCHAEFER