Thursday, 14 May 2009
Space as Material Entity
James Meyer, “The Functional Site; or, The Transformation of Site-Specificity,” in Space, Site, Intervention: Situating Installation Art, ed. Erika Suderberg, Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2000, 23-37.
James Meyer is an art historian and associate professor at Emory University in Atlanta specialised in Minimalism as well as other forms of American art. In this article, he explores site-specific art of the 1960s and 70s and how it has been resuscitated and explored in more recent practice. Site-specificity as Meyer distinguishes, concerns two notions of site: a literal and a functional site. A literal site refers to a physical location like monument. He mentions Richard Serra’s thought to this approach about site-oriented works, inseparable from their location (24). In contrast, the functional site may or may not incorporate a physical site. It is a temporary thing, a process occurring between sites.
Site-specific art, whether the work concerns a literal or functional site, it needs an actual location for various reasons and this makes me question the value of site within a contemporary art context. While my last three years studying at a contemporary art institution, I had a huge interest in sculpture and art installation. In addition, while producing artworks, I keep questioning what art is in a contemporary context, but I tend to care less about the site that contains the art. Maybe this is caused by my studio environment that art school provided for me. There are plain white walls waiting for me to engage with and this directly makes me think that I need to produce some work in it. In addition, plain white walls are obviously allowing the audience to interact with artworks without any interruption and this could be the reason why I look at white walls as neutral and forget their own value by themselves.
Meyer (25) noted that ‘site-specific work exposes space as material entity, a no longer neutral place, a backdrop for the merchandising of portable art objects’. Site-specifici art merged together with Land art, started off with idea of de-contextualisation of the gallery and museum space. Artworks challenged the notion to be made and viewed outside the gallery space breaking boundaries of the art world. For example, Spiral Jetty 1970 is one of most well known site-specific earthworks by American artist Robert Smithson located in the Great Salt Lake. This work is clearly showing one of his goals which was to place work in the land rather than on the land.[1] According to his view, land becomes part of the work and cannot be read inseparable. In addition, the value of space in site-specific art can be seen as the most important part of the artwork acting as material entity. Furthermore, if the functional aspect of the site or landscape is valued as material entity here, can site within an art institutional frame be any different? The relationship between art and site in a gallery setting could be expressed as artwork being with an empty white room rather than in it. The only difference could be the plain neutral site within the institutional frame functions as material to support artworks, like the people behind the stage have a hidden role for the show.
[1] Goldberg, Elyse. “About Robert Smithson." Robert Smithson. James Cohan Gallery. 13 May 2009 http://www.robertsmithson.som/introduction.html.
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In your second paragraph you mention site specific art needs an actual location in which to exist. I think that the most important part of the text is being overlooked in which that site specific art, most specifically functional, is rather a critique on the art system, art galleries and ‘homelessness‘ of the objects which are put in galleries. The specific place in which the site-specific artwork exists is temporal and in many cases of site-specificity is unimportant, were as the documentation of the event is the important aspect of the work. As the artwork exists only in the form of documentation (as is the case in spiral jetty by Robert Smithson, which fell to pieces), the ownership of the artwork cannot be obtained in the traditional sense.
ReplyDeleteYou talk a lot about the white walls of the university in relation to your practice there and site-specificity. Davido in his comment above expanded on the difference between a literal and a functional interpretation of site. If we think of the university as a functional site then we are less concerned with the physical space of the place and more with its significance within a discursive space, i.e. the New Zealand art world. Elam holds a very special significance in the New Zealand art world as an institution which has historically given forth many of New Zealands most successful artists. It is a discursive site which has exclusive entry to only the best students (numbers have however increased) and so people who can participate in this discursive space are limited in that way (I'm not saying that's a bad thing). As different teachers and students come and go the nature of this functional site changes even if the physical site does not.
ReplyDeleteIn my second paragraph I meant site specific art also needs a location for documentation. It still needs a temporary location.
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