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OVERVIEW It is a Genre of Western Contemporary Art and came to prominence in the 1970s. However, early examples of non-Western installation art (which influenced American installation pioneers like Allan Kaprow ) are the events staged by the Gutai group in Japan from 1954 onwards. Installation art incorporates almost any media to create a visceral and/or conceptual experience in a particular environment. Installation artists often use the space of the gallery directly. Many trace the roots of this form of art to earlier artists such as Marcel Duchamp and the use of Readymade objects rather than more traditional Craft based Sculpture , and Kurt Schwitters Merz art. The intention of the artist is paramount in much later installation art whose roots lie in the Conceptual Art of the 1960s. This again is a departure from traditional sculpture which places its focus on Form . Materials used in contemporary installation art range from everyday and natural materials to New Media such as Video , Sound , Performance , Computers and the Internet . Some installations are Site-specific in that they are designed to only exist in the space for which they were created. “Installation” as nomenclature for a specific form of art came into use fairly recently; its first use as documented by the OED was in 1969. It was coined in this context in reference to a form of art that had arguably existed since prehistory but was not regarded as a discrete category until the mid-twentieth century. Allan Kaprow used the term “ Environment ” in 1958 (Kaprow 6) to describe his transformed indoor spaces; this later joined such terms as “project art” and “temporary art.” Nobody has managed to come up with a definition of installation art that satisfies everybody, perhaps because it is more representative of a sea change in the practice of art appreciation than of any decisive breakthrough in a specific medium. Essentially, installation/environmental art takes into account the viewer’s entire sensory experience, rather than floating framed points of focus on a “neutral” wall or displaying isolated objects (literally) on a pedestal. This leaves Space and Time as its only dimensional constants, and it promises to engender or at least embrace a comprehensively critical mode of experience. This implies dissolution of the line between art and life; Kaprow noted that “if we bypass ‘art’ and take nature itself as a model or point of departure, we may be able to devise a different kind of art… out of the sensory stuff of ordinary life” (Kaprow 12). The conscious act of artistically addressing all the senses with regard to the viewer’s experience in totality made a resounding debut in , ambiance, and even the Audience itself were considered and manipulated in order to achieve a state of total artistic immersion. In “Art and Objecthood,” / Narrative experience that surrounds him and maintain a degree of self-identity as a viewer. The traditional theatergoer does not forget that he has come in from outside to sit and take in a created experience; a trademark of installation art has been the curious and eager viewer, still aware that he is in an exhibition setting and tentatively exploring the novel universe of the installation. The artist and critic and Video offer immersive experiences, but their unrelenting control over the Rhythm of passing time and the arrangement of images precludes an intimately personal viewing experience (Kabakov 257). Ultimately, the only things a viewer can be assured of when experiencing the work are his own thoughts and preconceptions and the basic rules of space and time. All else may be molded by the artist’s hands. The central importance of the Subjective point of view when experiencing installation art, like the evolved stages of software distribution, points toward a disregard for traditional Platonic image theory. In effect, the entire installation adopts the character of the Simulacrum or flawed Statue : it neglects any ideal form in favor of optimizing its direct appearance to the observer. Installation art operates fully within the realm of sensory perception, in a sense “installing” the viewer into an artificial system with an appeal to his subjective perception as its ultimate goal. SEE ALSO EXTERNAL LINKS BIBLIOGRAPHY
CONTEMPORARY INSTALLATION ARTISTS
EXTERNAL LINKS
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