41 INSTALLATION

SCULPTURE BECOMES ENVIRONMENT

Installation art is a genre in which the artist creates a complete or partial environment. As such, it moves away from the traditional concept of sculpture as an object to be contemplated by a viewer; the sculpture now surrounds and involves the viewer completely.

With its interest in the transformation of the appearance and feel of interior spaces, installation art rubs shoulders with the disciplines of architecture, interior design, and theater. Many installations share certain features with fairground entertainment and other popular forms of diversion.

OPTIONS

• Transformation

An interior essentially becomes something else: An art gallery becomes a bar or a living room, or an empty room becomes a garden.

• Color Enclosure

A space is transformed by color.

• Lighting

A space is redefined by light or its absence.

• Sound

Sound ambience can create a powerful sense of place, create a particular mood, or bring other associations to mind.

• Video

Installations involving video screens continue to proliferate as the technology improves. Projected images can provide an almost unlimited array of experience and reference.

• Interactive

The audience is invited to participate. This might involve providing structures to climb on, or slides, swings, and other obstacles to be negotiated. Computer consoles can also offer the opportunity to interact in different ways. Motion detectors and other electronic devices can allow the audience to affect the artwork in prescribed ways.

• Space

Elements are deployed to make palpable or to define a space. One artist has filled rooms with balloons, obliging the viewer to press through the space. String and other lightweight elements can be used to make palpable the physical space of an interior.

See also: Land Art on page 100; Video on page 204; Interactive Art on page 94

Although the term “installation art” did not appear as a description until the late 1960s, the genre goes back at least to Dadaism and the early work of Marcel Duchamp (1887–1968) and Kurt Schwitters (1887–1948). In 1937, for instance, Duchamp designed an exhibition of Surrealist art by hanging twelve hundred sacks of coal from the ceiling of the elegant Galerie des Beaux Arts. The paintings were attached to a series of discarded revolving doors. On the opening night the lights were turned off and visitors were handed flashlights to find their way through the exhibit.

See also: Conceptual Art on page 46

Judy Pfaff installation at the Rose Gallery, Brandeis University, 1995, String, tree trunk, tree roots, rope