Project 2

Proposal

My project focus is to develop my first project, because its has been proposed to me due to the fact that it was to much work to fit on just one project time.

Furthermore in this second part I’m going to think a way of presenting the artwork as an Installation rather than just a video.

I would like to research about some sound and video installations and how are they presented to the public.

Spectatorship

I want to take some photographs and create and installation by exploring some of the different ways that the same artwork can be perceived. For example, what are the differences and similarities between the video been shown on an installation representing a public cinema or an installation representing a projection on a museum? And if is shown on a representation of a teenager room? The same question can be asked about different installations.

The materials that I’m going to be using depends on the final idea of how I’m going to display the video, I might need such things as a projector, computer, photographic camera and cinema or room decoration among other materials.

I’ll be looking into some contemporary video installation artists like Bill Viola, Bruce Nauman and Olafur Eliasson.

Installation Art


http://www.visual-arts-cork.com/installation-art.htm

Definition & Characteristics

Installation art is a relatively new genre of contemporary art, practised by an increasing number of postmodernist artists, which incorporates a range of 2-D and 3-D materials to influence the way we experience or perceive a particular space. Installations are artistic interventions designed to make us rethink our lives and values. For other new art styles see Contemporary Art Movements.

As in all general forms of Conceptual art, Installation artists are more concerned with the presentation of their message than with the means used to achieve it. As a result, computer art is becoming a key feature. However, unlike 'pure' Conceptual art, which is supposedly experienced in the minds of those introduced to it, Installation art is more grounded - it remains tied to a physical space. Conceptualism and Installations are two of the best examples of Postmodernist art. Admired and hated by art critics, both forms are widely exhibited in many of the world's best galleries of contemporary art.

Types of Installations

This visual art form ranges from the very simple to the very complex. An installation can be gallery based, digital based, electronic based, web-based - the possibilities are limitless and depend entirely upon the artist's concept and aims. Almost any type of material or media can be utilized in contemporary installation art, including natural or man-made objects, painting and sculpture, as well as new media such as video, film, photography, audio, performance, happenings and computers.

Some compositions are strictly indoor, while others are public art, constructed in open-air community spaces. Some are mute, while others are interactive and require audience participation.


The Sequence (2008) by Arne Quinze.
A wooden sculpture-installation at the Flemish Parliament in Brussels.
Postmodernist public art.

Installations On Tour

Some installations are custom-made for a particular space. Others - such as the still-life line drawings of clustered objects made from adhesive tape, by Michael Craig-Martin (b.1941) - can be assembled anywhere. Some even tour as part of a touring exhibition, examples being: the kinetic light environments of the Groupe Recherche d'Art Visuel which toured Europe; Earth Room (1968) by Walter De Maria (b.1935) which toured America before finding a permanent home in New York; and '20:50' by British sculptor Richard Wilson - a room filled with sump oil, viewed from a footbridge - which was shown in London, the Royal Scottish Academy and is now permanently installed at The Saatchi Gallery, the hypermodern art centre owned by the British philanthropist Charles Saatchi. (See also Turner Prize.) However, whatever their particular character, most installation artworks have a low intrinsic value: their real 'value' is the artistic effect they produce.

Difference Between Sculpture and Installation

At first glance, some installations may resemble traditional craft based sculpture or the more modernist assemblage art. But this is an illusion. Installation art effectively inverts the principles of sculpture. Whereas the latter is designed to be viewed from the outside as a self-contained arrangement of forms, installations often envelop the spectator in the space of the work. The viewer enters a controlled environment featuring objects as well as light, sound and projected imagery. The formalism of the composition remains of secondary importance - it is the effect on the spectator's spacial and cultural expectations that remains paramount.

History

Emerging during the 1970s, Installation is associated with Conceptual art and can therefore be traced back to artists such as Marcel Duchamp (1887-1968) and his modernist readymades such as his controversial urinal called Fountain (1917). Other influences include the avant-garde Dada exhibitions in Berlin and Cologne; the work of the collage artist and sculptor Kurt Schwitters (1887-1948), notably his 'Merzbau' assemblage which filled a whole building; the Proun Room at the Berlin Railway Station in 1923, designed by the Russian artist El Lissitzky (1890-1941), possibly the earliest ever installation; the Spatial Environments of the painter and sculptor Lucio Fontana (1899-1968) and his White Manifesto outlining his theories of Spatialism; the "4-33" silent musical composition composed by John Milton Cage Jr (1912–1992). In addition, the assemblages and writings of the American avant-garde artist Allan Kaprow (b.1927) - notably his 1966 book 'Assemblage, Environments and Happenings' - were also highly influential on the development of the Installation genre.

Famous Installation Artists

Famous modern installation artists include: Joseph Beuys (1921-86) the war-scarred ex-Professor of Monumental Sculpture at the Dusseldorf Academy, whose lard and felt installations, extensive use of found objects, bold lectures on art and creativity and career long dedication earned him a retrospective at the Guggenheim Museum in New York; Italian Arte Povera artists Mario Merz (1925-2003), Michelangelo Pistoletto (b.1933), Jannis Kounellis (b.1936), and Gilberto Zorio (b.1944); the German multi-media artist Rebecca Horn (b.1944), noted for her performance films as well as her kinetic installations, and her Guggenheim retrospective which toured Europe in 1994; Bruce Nauman (b.1941), noted for his neon light sculpture and video installations; and the Frenchman Christian Boltanski (b.1944), famous for his installations of photographs, sometimes with lights. A unique form of postmodernism was practised by Christo and Jeanne-Claude (both b.1935), the Bulgarian-French couple who became famous for their huge 'empaquetage' interventions in nature. Other contemporary Installation artists include: the Norwegian Olafur Eliasson, whose works include The Forked Forest Path (1998, Towner Art Gallery, Eastbourne); Young British Artists like Damien Hirst (b.1965) and Tracey Emin (b.1963); and the Koreans Nam June Paik (1932-2006), noted for his videop art and Do-Ho Suh, noted for his composition Some/One (2002) featuring thousands of nickel military dogtags, at the Serpentine Gallery, London.

Artwork

Evaluation

The aim of my project was in one hand to finish the edition of the first project, and on the other hand to transform the video into an art installation.

In this second part, instead of choosing Feminist artists to research just for the sake of being labeled as Feminists Artists, I’ve been researching about Installation Art, Video-Installation Art, and some remarkable artists of these areas. But mainly I wanted to study interaction between viewer/spectator and artwork. I wanted to apply the Marshall McLuhan sentence: the medium is the message.

I’ve reading some chapters of the book “Ways of seeing” by John Berger and “Spectatorship: The Power of Looking on” by Michele AAron, as well as discovered Margaret Morse -a Digital and Media theorist and critic- through her text “Video Installation Art: The Body, the Image and the Space-in Between”. As well as research and the following artist’s: Bill Viola, Bruce Naunman, Olauf Eliasson, Anthony McCall, Anri Sala, Gustav Metzger, liam Gillick, Jenny Holzer, Tracey Emin, Barbara Kruger and Simon Martin.

I wrote some possible scenarios of the installation on my proposal and finally chose the teenager room scenario basically because it seems much more close with reality than any of the others scenarios.

I think this project hasn’t been successful for a couple of reasons. Firstly because I missed something that I should have had in mind is that there wasn’t going to happen a ‘real’ exposition to the public, so I didn’t have any ‘real’ feedback. The installation was there but it didn’t have a set time for beginning and end and didn’t have any spectator than the students that were around on that moment.

I also forgot at home some of the decoration that I wanted to use.

But the main problem has been that I shouldn’t have chosen such a long project (1) in the first place, because at the end I was pretty stuck and bored of be still doing the same project, therefore I haven’t been as motivated as I could have been doing something different.

On my opinion, what has been positive about this is that I’ve had more time to research about concepts and ideas and I feel that I’ve learnt a lot from reading and researching about ideas in Installation Art, and this study has approached me to Conceptual Art. I’m finding this topic very interesting and is giving me new ideas for future projects.