Installation art

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Rachel Whiteread, Embankment at Tate Modern, London
An installation art of Mad crab created with waste plastics and similar non-biodegradable wastes at Fort Kochi.
See also: Interactive art

Installation art is an artistic genre of

three-dimensional works that are often site-specific and designed to transform the perception of a space. Generally, the term is applied to interior spaces, whereas exterior interventions are often called public art, land art or art intervention
; however, the boundaries between these terms overlap.

History

Visitors interact with a couple in bed, inside one of the many environments of La Menesunda (1965), one of the earliest large-scale installations in art history.[1][2]

Installation art can be either temporary or permanent. Installation artworks have been constructed in exhibition spaces such as museums and galleries, as well as public and private spaces. The

Fairy Doors of Ann Arbor, MI
, among others.

Installation art came to prominence in the 1970s but its roots can be identified in earlier artists such as

Gutai group in Japan starting in 1954, which influenced American installation pioneers like Allan Kaprow
. Wolf Vostell shows his installation 6 TV Dé-coll/age in 1963[3] at the Smolin Gallery in New York.

Installation

Allan McCollum.The Shapes Project, 2005/06

Installation as nomenclature for a specific form of art came into use fairly recently; its first use as documented by the Oxford English Dictionary was in 1969. It was coined in this context, in reference to a form of art that had arguably existed since prehistory but was not regarded as a discrete category until the mid-twentieth century. Allan Kaprow used the term "Environment" in 1958 (Kaprow 6) to describe his transformed indoor spaces; this later joined such terms as "project art" and "temporary art."

Essentially, installation/environmental art takes into account a broader sensory experience, rather than floating framed points of focus on a "neutral" wall or displaying isolated objects (literally) on a pedestal. This may leave space and time as its only dimensional constants, implying dissolution of the line between "art" and "life"; Kaprow noted that "if we bypass 'art' and take nature itself as a model or point of departure, we may be able to devise a different kind of art... out of the sensory stuff of ordinary life".

Gesamtkunstwerk

The conscious act of artistically addressing all the senses with regard to a total experience made a resounding debut in 1849 when

Greek theater in its inclusion of all the major art forms: painting, writing, music, etc. (Britannica). In devising operatic works to commandeer the audience's senses, Wagner left nothing unobserved: architecture, ambience, and even the audience itself were considered and manipulated in order to achieve a state of total artistic immersion. In the book "Themes in Contemporary Art", it is suggested that "installations in the 1980s and 1990s were increasingly characterized by networks of operations involving the interaction among complex architectural settings, environmental sites and extensive use of everyday objects in ordinary contexts. With the advent of video in 1965, a concurrent strand of installation evolved through the use of new and ever-changing technologies, and what had been simple video installations expanded to include complex interactive, multimedia
and virtual reality environments".

Art and Objecthood

Guardians of Time, Manfred Kielnhofer, Festival of Lights (Berlin) French Cathedral, Berlin, Velotaxi 2011

In "Art and Objecthood", Michael Fried derisively labels art that acknowledges the viewer as "theatrical" (Fried 45). There is a strong parallel between installation and theater: both play to a viewer who is expected to be at once immersed in the sensory/narrative experience that surrounds him and maintain a degree of self-identity as a viewer. The traditional theater-goer does not forget that they have come in from outside to sit and take in a created experience; a trademark of installation art has been the curious and eager viewer, still aware that they are in an exhibition setting and tentatively exploring the novel universe of the installation.

The artist and critic Ilya Kabakov mentions this essential phenomenon in the introduction to his lectures "On the "Total" Installation": "[One] is simultaneously both a 'victim' and a viewer, who on the one hand surveys and evaluates the installation, and on the other, follows those associations, recollections which arise in him[;] he is overcome by the intense atmosphere of the total illusion". Here installation art bestows an unprecedented importance on the observer's inclusion in that which he observes. The expectations and social habits that the viewer brings with him into the space of the installation will remain with him as he enters, to be either applied or negated once he has taken in the new environment. What is common to nearly all installation art is a consideration of the experience in toto and the problems it may present, namely the constant conflict between disinterested criticism and sympathetic involvement. Television and video offer somewhat immersive experiences, but their unrelenting control over the rhythm of passing time and the arrangement of images precludes an intimately personal viewing experience. Ultimately, the only things a viewer can be assured of when experiencing the work are his own thoughts and preconceptions and the basic rules of space and time. All else may be molded by the artist's hands.

The central importance of the

subjective point of view when experiencing installation art, points toward a disregard for traditional Platonic image theory. In effect, the entire installation adopts the character of the simulacrum or flawed statue
: it neglects any ideal form in favor of optimizing its direct appearance to the observer. Installation art operates fully within the realm of sensory perception, in a sense "installing" the viewer into an artificial system with an appeal to his subjective perception as its ultimate goal.

Interactive installations

Marc Lee 10.000 Moving Cities, 2010-ongoing, National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art Seoul
An urban interactive art installation by Maurizio Bolognini (Genoa, 2005), which everybody can modify by using a cell phone.

An

interactive installation frequently involves the audience acting on the work of art or the piece responding to users' activity.[4] There are several kinds of interactive installations that artists produce, these include web-based installations (e.g., Telegarden), gallery-based installations, digital-based installations, electronic-based installations, mobile-based installations, etc. Interactive installations appeared mostly at end of the 1980s (Legible City by Jeffrey Shaw, La plume by Edmond Couchot, Michel Bret...) and became a genre during the 1990s, when artists became particularly interested in using the participation of the audiences to activate and reveal the meaning of the installation.

Paul Kuniholm Installation Art, for Storefronts, a Shunpike program

Immersive virtual reality

With the improvement of

immersive virtual reality art is probably the most deeply interactive form of art.[6] By allowing the spectator to "visit" the representation, the artist creates "situations to live" vs "spectacle to watch".[7]

Gallery

See also

References

  1. ^ "Journey through this maze-like installation and become a part of the art". Tate. Retrieved March 29, 2020.
  2. ^ "Marta Minujín: Menesunda Reloaded". New Museum. June 26, 2019. Retrieved March 29, 2020.
  3. ^ Wolf Vostell, 6 TV Dé-coll/age, 1963
  4. ^ Younis, Lauren (March 5, 2009). "Hearts and Scissors Exhibit to Open". Archived from the original on 29 November 2014. Retrieved 23 November 2014. "Installation art can facilitate a direct, immediate interaction with the viewer," [Cindy] Hinant said.
  5. LAP Lambert Academic Publishing
    . 2009, p. 14
  6. LAP Lambert Academic Publishing
    . 2009, pp. 367-368
  7. ISBN 978-2-35988-046-5
  8. ISBN 980-6472-21-7

Bibliography

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Installation art.
Wikiquote has quotations related to Installation art.

Contemporary installation organizations and museums

Installation art

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