Conceptual Art: Installation &
Site-Specific
AVI 4M
Grade 12 Independent Portfolio
N. Marin
What is
Installation & Site-Specific
Art?
Definition: Installation art describes an artistic genre of threedimensional works that are often site-specific and designed to transform
the perception of a space. (It is a relatively new genre of contemporary
art.)
Unlike most painters, sculptors, or other visual artists, installation artists
design their works for a specific place. In this way, the space, whether it
is a gallery, a park, a museum, or even a hallway, becomes part of the
object the artist creates. Because installation art is so dependent
on the environment in which it is placed, the artwork often loses
meaning once it is removed and can even end up getting destroyed in
the process.
→ Think of examples of site-specific art, globally and locally. This could
include murals, mosaics, or public sculpture.
→ Point to ponder: Does graffiti count as site-specific art?
Installation & Site-Specific Art
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History: Installation art came to
prominence in the 1970s but its
roots can be traced back in artists
such as Marcel Duchamp and his
use of the “readymade”.
The artist's concept takes
precedence and is explored visually
and sometimes, interactively. This
gives viewers an immediate,
emotional response to the
installation.
Installation & Site-Specific Art
Artist: Choi Xoo Ang
Medium: Polymer Clay
Concept: South Korean artist Choi
Xoo Ang’s metaphorical painted,
polymer clay figures are personal,
literal and immediate. They
symbolize abuse in Korea. If art is
not relevant, in response to the
society we live in, to some it may
serve as meaningless.
Installation & Site-Specific Art
Artist: Dawn NG
Medium: Paper, wire
Concept: See Artist
Statement (next page)
Artist: Ebon Heath
Medium: Mixed Media
Concept: Ebon Heath takes the 2
dimensional type constricted by its flatness
on a page and sets it free 3 dimensionally, via
hand made structural frames onto which type
is anchored to. His installations examine the
overload of information polluting our minds
from modern media bombardment, brainwashing propaganda from day to day in our
urban setting. The pollution of visible and
invisible noise brought on from technology
such as cell phone “suicide,” radio and
television. Heath wants us to take command
of our environment in annihilating our
constant obsession, addiction to
entertainment. His structures of moving
words aim to “cleanse” and “release”
entrapped information inside us all. Like
poetry in motion or an MC on the mic who
doesn’t solely rely on rhymes, but trusts his
instinctual-internal rhythms-in projecting what
must be felt physically coming from our
minds.
Artist: Claire Morgan
Medium: Mixed Media
Concept: "My work is about
our relationship with the rest
of nature, explored through
notions of change, the
passing of time, and the
transience of everything
around us. For me, creating
seemingly solid structures or
forms from thousands of
individually suspended
elements has a direct relation
with my experience of these
forces. There is a sense of
fragility and a lack of solidity
that carries through all the
sculptures. I feel as if they
are somewhere between
movement and stillness, and
thus in possession of a
certain energy.
Artist: Ludovic Le Couster &
Sébastien Preschoux
Medium: Nylon wire
Concept: Rainbow Weaving,
“Optical Disorders”
Artist: Bruce Nauman
Medium: Light installation
Concept: A fascination of the
nature of communication and
language's inherent problems, as
well as the role of the artist as
supposed communicator and
manipulator of visual symbols.
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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. Installation art is grounded it remains tied to a physical space.
Conceptualism and Installations are
two of the best examples of
Postmodernist Art