The Nature of Installation

   This blog will serve as an exploration of the nature of installation art in the contemporary art world. Installation art has been a fundamental seperation from the traditional, static two dimensional art practice most common in the art world for centuries. It is an attempt to take the experience into the world of the viewer in a very engaging and interactive manner. It can encompass a multitude of various materials. Installation pieces can vary from being site specific, temporary, permanent, indoors, outdoors, inviting, ostracizing, large, small, ephemeral, political... almost anything. Artists that work in installations must consider their audiences in a more in depth manner because they are no longer putting up work to just be looked at but they are creating an environment for their viewers to inhabit for a brief moment.

   For me, it is amazing that an art form can impart on an individual an experience. It is incredible seeing a poignant, beautiful piece of work on the wall, but when you are allowed to partake in that environment it makes for an even more lasting an fulfilling experience. The average viewing time for a piece of art on the wall is something like fifteen to thirty seconds! FIFTEEN TO THIRTY SECONDS! That is devastating. To think of all of the work and time put into a great piece of work and to make a person look at it for only half a minute is so discouraging. It's enough to make me want to change my profession. But instead of being completely defeated, I decided to find another form maybe more successful at retaining the attention of the most attention deficit individual, that being installation art.

   The first installation that I encountered was David Sanchez-Burr's Transit Emergency installed in the Donna Beam Fine Art Gallery in 2009. He created this otherwordly experience for me, completely transforming the space of the gallery, that affected the way I saw the possibilites for art making. Downstairs he had crossing circular platforms with little runways, all attached to this tall column of blue lights. Beside his fragile homes on the circular platforms he created this ever changing, ever decaying dinner table. Upstairs he created a movie theater-esque setting to view his uncanny video of underwater creation and deformation. He was able to make a site specific environment that was seperate from the outside world, but also reflected it. I think that was the first time I spent more than an hour in the Donna Beam Fine Art Gallery. What this show meant to me, was that it was possible to impart on your audience a tactile experience with the possibilities to change something within.

David Sanchez-Burr, Transit Emergency, Installation Donna Beam Gallery 2009

   This blog will further investigate what the many different outcomes and facets of installation art are in today's world. What is it that makes a good installation? Why is it successful? What must it have to make a difference on its audience? I will try to address these questions as well as others when reviewing the work of professional artists to attempt to better understand the nature of installations.