Research - Kelton

Site specific is a very interesting topic within the art world. It allows for artworks to exist outside of the gallery, and reemerge in natural settings. It allows artists to take on new aspects of the world, through exploring work that does not solely exist on paper, canvas, or interior spaces.

James Turrell is one of my favorite artists who deals with site-specific work. In his earlier work, he used light to create isolated environments that played with the senses. He was able to use light in new ways to create form and space, in a way that played against our natural perception of light. In his earliest works such as Afrum-Proto, Turrell uses Quartz-halogen projection as a way to create simple shapes such as cubes and rectangles that appear to exist in space, while illuminating their surroundings. Much of his mid-life work revolves around using natural and various unnatural light sources to create whole rooms.

Turrell most well know work is Roden Crater, a project that started almost 30 years ago. This work emphasizes naturally occurring phenomena in the earth’s atmosphere that, through architecture based in this natural setting, is able to highlight. This work, similarly with the work of Christo and Jeanne-Claude public works, and Michael Heizer’s City, works on a monumental scale, at involves entire landscapes. With all of his work, I like how it is able to capture phenomena within the spectrum of light and space, and uses it to create his own sense of space and place.

Another artist I really enjoy is Maya Lin, who creates site-specific work including public artworks, memorials, parks, and gallery work. I liked, after looking at her work at the Corcoran, books, and Art21, that all of her work contains multiple layers of meaning and context. These different layers are all built into works that are seemingly minimal. They provide subtle gestures that resemble natural forms.

In Lin’s show, Systematic Landscapes, she creates around ten works revolving around topography. Each work uses completely different formal and conceptual methods of creating the topographies. Some of the works use wood, both on a vertical and horizontal plane to create large and detailed works, while she also uses wire and pins to make topographic line drawings. She also uses books of maps to make more conceptual topographies by cutting down into the layers and pages of the books.

http://www.pbs.org/art21/artists/lin/
http://www.mayalin.com/

http://www.pbs.org/art21/artists/turrell/
http://www.lasersol.com/art/turrell/roden_crater.html
Adcock, Craig. James Turrell: The Art of Light and Space. University of California P, 1990.

Analysis - Kelton

Site-specific work is given the ability to engage with the natural world, and for it not exist only within a gallery. There are a few different qualities that allow a work to be defines as site-specific, including the space, place, time, and context of the work. There are also different formal ways artists create site-specific works, such as installations, land art, or earthworks.

Space can play many different roles in a work of art. The artwork can provide a space for the viewer to enter, or exist in, that changes their perception or interpretation of that space. The artwork can restrict the viewer from a space, creating a space that you would have to look into, or view from afar to realize. Some work’s subject is space itself, dealing with spatial relations from one object to another. Other work can help define the space, either in context or physicality, or take the space over, causing intrusion and manipulation.

Place plays a large part of site-specific work. I would define place as the specific area that a work exists in. This means its location, which allows culture to become an important part of the context of the work. If a work is site-specific in New York City, many times it will speak specifically to New Yorkers as a way to directly connect to the views in their environment. Other times, artists will create work that changes or makes you think of other places, such as memories or dreams.

Time is an important factor of a site-specific work, because it can play heavily of the viewer’s relationship to the piece. Making work that talks about modern and contemporary ideas might apply to one kind of audience, however, making work that’s about WWII or the growing up in the depression might captivate another kind of audience. Many times artists use time as a way to place the viewer in a specific point, whether it is in the past, present, or future.

In installations, whether they are inside or outside, are a way to create sculptures that surround the body and its senses. They have the ability to work from many different contextual angles to get the viewer interested. Within site-specific work, they have the ability to bring the viewer into a space or thought within spaces, where the viewer would not normally be engaged in this kind of experience.

Land art and earthworks are the most interesting site-specific works to me, because they exist outside in nature, and directly relate to the site they are in. Many works, such as James Turrell’s Roden Crater, Robert Smithson’s Spiral Jetty, Michael Heizer’s City or Double Negative, and Christo and Jeanne-Claude’s public art, all engage, on a large scale, the total environment they exist within. Some of them are overbearing, while other help enhance the experience of that place.

Intention Statement

I feel a little uncomfortable working and setting up my pieces in the studio, as I feel like I’m trapped in a bubble; I don’t get to work with my hands for pretty much any other classes, and I love the outdoors. I feel like art placed in a gallery is usually very cold, emotionless, or can even be one-dimensional, while public art can have so much more life. You have a limited variety of individuals who visit galleries, and thusly only a smaller range of interpretations on a piece. What I mean to say is, I prefer the average person’s take on my art. Nothing gives me more pleasure than to sit anonymously and overhear a regular person’s conversations about a piece; it is usually the most sincere. I also love shock value, and seeing how people react to new objects or unknown situations, which is a bit of my Human Studies/Educational Studies major coming out.

Initially, I wanted to try something different than my prior projects, and I’m not sure why, but I wanted to try something a bit more conceptual. I wanted to address internet in terms of place and location. I think that the fact that we store information, talk with each other, and many people spend most of their days on the internet qualify it as a location. The piece would compare bandwidth to a natural resource, and attempt to “liberate” it. There are areas of the campus without wireless internet that I wanted to divert like a river, as members of agrarian civilizations did with rivers to irrigate their crops. Working with the technology was not too much to deal with, it was more an issue of getting the necessary equipment, which is usually pretty expensive. I had to drop this idea in lieu of one less grand, but a bit more interactive.

I eventually began to look into the difference between the literal area viewed by the campus waterfront webcam, and the space seen by anyone viewing the feed on their computer monitor. I began to see the literal space as a stage for events, that don’t ever really seem to happen, when one spends a day glancing at the webcam’s updates (like I did in preparation for the project). The space is almost an unchanging picture, save for the random couple of students walking, the car parking in the first spot, or the difference in weather/time, and I want to change that.

While incomplete until the performance aspect, the piece is a comment on surveillance. Most students either do not know where the camera is placed, or about the it at all, and do not amend their actions due to this, despite being in full view of anyone at all who enters in the link. Without the performance, the piece is a voyeur’s dream; people acting naturally (even though they are not in a domestic space).

I would like to reschedule the performance event for this weekend, when the weather is supposed to be better. In the invitation, I will ask people to come and perform in any way they like; to act, to sing, to play an instrument, to deface the stage, to read, even to pantomime, really any way in which they chose to express their first amendment rights, but only on the stage. Ironically, freedom of speech will be rendered moot by the fact that there is no audio feed, only video. I will also send out an email asking people to watch the live feed.

intention

                    Intention Statement

        This work represents a visual essay in which I am addressing a personal dialogue about the necessity of the art object in relation to art history as well as my own artistic history. I used two specific spaces within the St.Mary’s community that created a contrasting dialogue about the rise and fall of the art object, as well as the rise and fall of industrial production within our society. The use of contrasting sights allowed for my internal artistic dialogue to become visually narrated. I began this process with a third sight, but through the course of multiple experiments and conceptual wrestling, I have resolved to a binary conclusion with open-ended room for discussion.
The first sight for my project is the waterfront area on campus. A community symbol of expansion and industrial growth, this sight provides an industrialized backdrop for the sculpture that was created. I chose this sight because this was were I found the material for my sculpture, as well as the symbolic representation that the sight has as a place of development and expansion. The sculpture, within the sight, is a symbol for the transformation that art has gone through from a discourse to an economically driven industry; a mass production objects for the immediate consumption of society. The materials that I used, two discarded bikes tossed into the water, were intertwined into each other to create a hyper-object of industrial production. But, within my sculpture looms the premonition of things to come. While the emerging bike, a representation of the glorified industrial art-object, embraces the world it is about to enter, it can be seen that this object is not newly produced but a rusted Frankenstein created from two abandoned bikes. This component of the sculpture represents the looming danger that can come, and in my opinion has come, from over production. The fact that two bikes were thrown into the water like a old piece of gum begs the question, when have we become so caught up in industrial production and economic consumption that two bikes become undervalued trash? The space is an environment which one could argue represents St. Mary’s unnecessary industrial production and expansion. Driven by our social desire for always creating new and going bigger, the two story boat house comes with its own community-based baggage. From there, the second sight represents a conclusion about what over production can create, both socially and artistically.
Sight two is the social representation of the discarded products of our industrial society. A graveyard of architecture, this sight contains the foundation of a trailer and the left-over’s of its residents, all of which has begun to be re-claimed by nature. While the waterfront sight influenced my art by providing me with the material, and creating a large amount of space to consider when displaying the work, this sight overpowered my choices in artistic creation. Set off from the road, this desolate space overpowered my sense of safety and ownership over the space. While at the waterfront I felt comfortable in altering the space, I felt like I had no place or right to interact with the second sight. Due to that, I never went to the sight without a dog, I never stayed at the sight for more then an hour at a time, and I was never able to lose myself within the sight because I was constantly trying to stay aware of approaching people or cars. However, this sight created the perfect environment for cohesively executing a contrasting environment.
The space represents the abandonment of production within society. Set in-front of a newly developed town home community, this forgotten trailer is a visual reminder of our social obsession for creating and consuming new things, at the irresponsible neglect of the old. This sight, forgotten by those around it and a juxtaposition to the hyper-produced development behind it, represents the consequences of our need to always be producing and making. As an artist, my overwhelming addiction to produce and create begs the question; what is my responsibility as a creator of objects, and how do I address the awareness that my once valued objects inevitably become forgotten ejaculations of self-serving artistic satisfaction? This second sight seemed to be a perfect environment where I could bury my forgotten work, and where I could contemplate my constant need to produce, only to abandon the objects I birth. My abandoned sculpture, that once had life and value just as the trailer that existed at the sight once had life, was submerged into this sight to create a burial of the object; the landfill of our social and artistic production
        I think as a whole the two sights successfully speak to each other, and engage in an intriguing dialogue, however the sight specific component of each sight does not speak well for its complete communication to an audience. While photographically the two sights cohesively go together, one does not physically lead to the other. So, for anyone who would come across one sight would not know to got to the other, or that there even was another. In that way I would change my sculpture. Perhaps by finding two sights that were within walking distance of eat other, or by creating a text that would lead someone from one sight to the other, my visual essay would be able to be successfully communicated to a broader audience. Currently, each sculptural sight is viewed in isolation and so the conceptual argument is lost at the hand of location and transportation. 
        What I have realized within this assignment is that space and place have enormous power over a sight specific artwork. For example, I had created experimental works in the woods where students make bonfires and party. However, after a few days my work had been completely taken down by someone at the sight. This is interesting when considering that my intentions were only to amplify the sight, but that this artwork was perceived as invasive and unwelcome and was taken down by someone. I have a set agenda in mind for how these two space-oriented sculptures will be perceived, but location comes with an enormous amount of baggage. Sights contain historical, community, personal, and cultural meanings that are hard to challenge let alone break. Engaging in space and place within sculpture is a completely different vain that demands sensitivity and respect.

Analysis

Sculpture is different than most other art because it must exist in the real world. A painting is merely the placement of pigments on canvas, and the subjects can exist in a fantasy world created by the artist, but a sculpture must be able to obey the natural laws and forces of our world. This is one of the reasons that site and location are important considerations for the sculptor.
The artist must consider how his or her piece will create a dialogue with its surroundings, how environmental factors will affect it, and how it will withstand the elements. A piece that is placed in a gallery does not necessarily have to worry about withstanding elements, but must be considered in context too. The artist and curator must consider matters including the flow of the gallery, color, lighting, and other works around the structure.
Through dialogue between a piece and its location, the artist can communicate a variety of messagees. Some artists attempt to create a frame from which the audience can see the world reimagined, or with some aspects heightened or enriched. With these structures, they may see the sky as a moving canvas, as James Turrell is attempting to do with his piece, Rodan Crater. The reordering of space is also a pivotal aspect of Gordon Matta-Clark’s piece, Conical Intersect.
To be an artist who fully realizes the value of site and location, one must be able to consider all aspect of a location. They must be aware of the light, texture, color, and environmental processes of their surroundings. They should be able to fully realize the relationship between all aspects, and see how they add or detract from their concept.

Artist Research

Gordon Matta-Clark
(3 above)(4 below)
Gordon Matta Clark began his artistic schooling by studying architecture at Cornell. While studying abroad in Paris in 1968, he became interested in desconstrictivist philosophy. This is a practice in which one tries to glean meaning of an object or piece of text by breaking down the components, exposing the most basic aspects of the structure or argument(2). It is through this thought process that his building cut works come about. Many of Matta-Clark’s subversive, and likely due to the controversy, famous pieces, were alterations of existing buildings. One of these, Conical Intersect, is a re-evaluation of the building as a structure(2). By literally cutting through walls and floors, he began the process of demolition that was set to happen. Conical Intersect, as a piece was fleeting. As it was set for demolition, there was never a chance of Matta-Clark creating a permanent work of art. This means that the pieces did not sit around, and only briefly created a dialogue between themselves and the surrounding environment, and there is a sense of timing to them. Logistically, this is the probably the reason that Matta-Clark was even allowed to cut up these structures. It would be interesting to know if the pieces would be as powerful if they were not slated for demolition. In another act of rebellion was a lash out against modernist architects and the low income housing being built in cities at the time. He shot out the windows of The Institute for Urban Planning, making the building resemble pictures he placed of damaged urban homes(1). He protested the lack of resources and importance placed upon these spaces by his mentors. It is questionable whether the piece is art in the strictest sense. But as the artist conceptually attempts to recreate the urban buildings, he puts the modernist architects in the shoes of the city’s poor(1). (1)http://www.brooklynrail.org/2007/04/artseen/gmc-april-matta (2)http://www.artinfo.com/news/story/24688/gordon-matta-clark-at-the-whitney/ (3)http://www.curatedobject.us/photos/uncategorized/2008/01/30/6_gordon_matta_clark_splitting.jpg (4)http://www.muhka.be/images/image_117.jpg

James Turrell

James Turrell is an artist who creates structures through which the audience views light and space. These structures are like frames through which one views the world, and because of this, the piece its self is not art, but the action of the viewer’s re-evaluation of space and the world is(3).

Turrell has spent the past 30 years working on his opus, Roden Crater. He bought the dead volcano in 1978, and has attempted to transform it from a naturally built structure, into an observatory of sorts. This piece has cost him decades of his life, thousands of dollars, and various personal relationships(2).

Turrell, like many other recent sculptors have moved away from the gallery setting, hoping to create a piece that is in a space all of its own. This may be in an attempt to create a separate atmosphere for his art; so as to keep each piece separate, and not in constant comparison with other pieces of art. Conceptually and logistically, a piece like Rodan Crater would never work or have quite the same impact as an experience if it was close to or placed within a cityscape.

Turrell creates works of art with a kind of reverence that is rare from artists. Many come off as iconoclastic, or in opposition to societal norms(3). The artist is adapting a naturally constructed megalith into a structure focused on creating a new experience of light, the natural beauty of Arizona’s Painted Desert, and the drama and movement that fill the sky(1). The project is promising, and will be his crowning achievement when he opens it in 2011.

(1)http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/25/arts/design/25fink.html?_r=1&ref=arts

(2)http://www.lasersol.com/art/turrell/rc_intro.html

(3)http://www.pbs.org/art21/artists/turrell/

(4) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Roden.jpg

(5) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:%27The_Light_Inside%27,_Site-specific_installation_of_Neon_light,_gypsum_board,_plaster,_and_glass_by_James_Turrell,_1999,_Museum_of_Fine_Arts,_Houston.JPG

Analysis

Art, as a physical object in space, always has a relationship with the environment that it resides in. Whether it is the conventional gallery/museum space, or a place outside of the institution, art is always interacting with the space that it resides. The common interaction that object and space have is used to create a façade of illusions, providing spot lighting, space for viewing, a calm background, and hours for visitation, but it can evolve from a complimentary backdrop to an equalized component of the work as a whole. By engaging with space and place artists can create work that spans past the object into an environment where the viewer can become submerged within. It could be stated that while object-art allows for the audience to visually consume the work, leaving the object submissively obedient to the viewer, art that is much more environmental provides opportunity for the object and space to mold into one, holistically engaging the audience in a physical and visual experience . However, how that space is treated, how it alters the viewers connection to the work, and what it means to enter and engage with a space are all components of a larger discussion about special art. Through an examination of space oriented artwork, questions about how engaging with space and place alters an artist’s process, a viewer’s interpretation, and the intent of the space will begin to be addressed.
As a sculptor, creating an object, there is a sense of ownership and domination that comes with the creative process. While the object can have great power over the artist, it is undeniable that the artist controls the object’s creation, formation, and life. This god-like power that the artist has over the object is a relationship that permits the artist to have control over all elements during the creation process. However, when an artist directly engages in an environment, when the space that they are working/presenting in becomes not just a room but a crucial element of the artwork, how does that power relationship change? Looking at earthworks sculptures, the inclusion of the environment as a critical element in the work alters the relationship of artist and object by placing the artist in an environment where not every element can be fully controlled and dominated. When the space already exists before an artist enters, and that space is a natural one, as in earthworks art, the artist must realize their role as unnatural invaders into the space. Using Robert Smithson’s Spiral Jetty as an example, the earthworks artist must recognize that he altered that natural environment, which entails inevitably altering the eco-system within that environment. Earthworks artwork provides a means for individuals, such as Robert Smithson, to connect with nature in a creative manor by leaving the gallery/studio space and entering nature; where the components of institutional object making, conception, production, and display, are transformed by the environmental element of the work. What this means for artists like Smithson is that they are entering nature and using the space as their studio, medium, and gallery. So how does this artwork function within society? Some could argue that it still serves as a representation of the elevated artist, who has now left the institution to demonstrate their ability to be able to manipulate nature. It could also be seen that earthworks art allows for creativity and labor to cohesively occur within nature. This provided a creative means for people to enter a natural environment and physically connect with that space through spatial language. No longer an object for isolated voyeurism, space artwork can transcend the viewer from distant observer to full body engager who has the ability to walk atop and around the work, sense the natural environment the work is located in, and engage in a dialogue about the transformation that the space has been through..
Earthworks art brings up the issue of a contrasting duality between molding into the environment, creating cohesiveness between nature and the product, and invading nature by creating a space that inevitably alters the environment that the artist is attempting to connect with. Sight specific work can create another relationship between artist and environment, audience and space. Site specific work, work where the sight pre-planed element within the work, raises further discussion into the ramifications that place-art creates. What is so interesting about sight specific work is the issue of how the artwork actually becomes malleable to the sight that it is designed for, yet still transforms that sight into something new. Using Jeanne-Claud Christo’s The Gates as an example of sight specific work, the relationship between space and work is one of interesting dynamic. The Gates is an artwork which takes the constructed space of Central Park and creates a contrasting visual dialogue by adding to the space to a new visual experience. Orange squares of fabric flow with the breeze along the path in vibrant contrast to the leafless gray winterized Central Park. This work remained only for a limited amount of time and its presence re-energized the space and encouraging new visitation. It is as if this work gave fresh life to the space, not through altering the space, but through amplifying it. But what does this change mean for the people who live there, for the people who already engage with central park on a regular basis. What is needed when considering sight specific work is to consider what that space represented before it was altered, and what it represents now that it has been changed.
Take Rebecca Horn’s Concert Riverse for consideration of how sight work can effect so many people in so many ways. Located in a tower once used by Hitler’s Gestapo for holding and executing Russian and Polish prisoners, the sight had been blocked shut from the community and society until Horn used it for her work. Working to create an internal environment within the tower, Horn’s artwork provided a means for the dark moments of history to be re-engaged with. As an artist, Horn holds enormous responsibility when engaging with this sight. She is deciding that it is time for the wound of history to be examined, for a place where many may never wish to revisit to become a place where all and any can enter and wander. Furthermore, by choosing that sight, Horn is immediately placing herself within a historical dialogue about WWII history, memorials, and ancestors of holocaust survivors. Just as earthworks art inevitably affects nature, so sight specific work inevitably affects the community and people who are connected to it. It is a responsibility that cannot go unnoticed.
Space can also be a created environment that has no connection to an already existing place. It can have nothing to do with the elements or with a sight, but be a completely constructed environment. Louise Bourgois’ Spider 1997 is a completely constructed space. The space that she created is one of extreme presence and power; consisting of a giant spider over shadowing a caged environment reminiscent of attic space or old family heirlooms. While this work has transcended from object to environment, the artist has complete control over every element of the environment created, unlike the previous works described. No longer does the environment having any dictation over the work, but the artist becomes sole creator of space. This is interesting because Bourgois is creating a world, creating a place for people to engage with, and she decides how much they are permitted to enter the space. Different from the other works discussed, Bourgois is controlling all the elements, therefore keeping herself at the elevated position that object oriented artists reside.
Within these variations of environment oriented art, and the many other ways art can become environmentally driven, there is a large element which needs to be addressed. The shift in viewer-artist relationship seems to have the opportunity to shift when working with art that is more spatially driven. One of the first ways this sift occurs is that at times the artist and audience can merge together through the construction process of the work. Sight specific work tends to need the influence of a community, or a group of people, which integrates people who would normally not be included in the creative process. Specifically thinking of Christo and Smithston’s works, these large scale projects included a mass amount of people in the creation. In a sense, environment- artworks can create a creative collaboration, where the artist is still the conceptual originator, but others are included into the making of the work. This could be a means for considering how art could become a collaborative experience of equalized creation between artist and audience. Furthermore, space and place art could be a means for the economic element of art making and buying to become dismantled. Art that is within a space, such as central park, cannot be bought by one individual, but becomes a space for all to engage with.
The most intriguing element within considering space driven artwork is how much responsibility the artist has when entering a space. Weather it is nature, architecture, abandoned homes, or historic spaces the artist must realize that they are no longer making a work but are invading a space that has history, personal connections, and large scale effects on those around. This responsibility could be a means to create large social change, awareness, and beautification, but it can also be a means to create distance and an unwelcomed invasion when creating art that directly engages its environment.