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.