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.
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.
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