Chapter 10-Site-Specific
Art
Introduction-What, you may wonder, is site-specific art? Why does it deserve its own
chapter in the text? There is already a chapter covering architecture, and that
is site-specific. The Great Sphinx in the necropolis at Giza is surely
site-specific. There are always exceptions, of course. For example-the “London”
Bridge, a formerly site-specific work is now re-located in Lake Havasu, Arizona
where people water ski under it! As the text explains, site-specific refers to
a type of art that emerged in the mid-to-late twentieth century. This chapter
covers an extension of mostly three-dimensional work that extends art out into
the landscape, sometimes defies our expectations of permanence and often
appears in public spaces, including memorials and monuments. This chapter has
two A CLOSER LOOK sections and one COMPARE + CONTRAST section to
bring you close-ups of specific works that fit into these categories.
Chapter 10-Why Read It? Chapter 10 provides you one more tool for understanding art, even some
works that defy the logic of gallery art and art for sale. This will help you
grasp the wide variety of forms art can take and that they might be located
just about any place: the center of a busy city or in a natural setting that is
remote and difficult to travel to. Throughout the chapter are quotes by Dan
Flavin, Claude Simard, Robert Smithson, Walter de Maria, Vito Acconci and
Hippocrates. Additionally, many of the works mentioned in this chapter have
websites related to them, because they are ongoing, or are temporal and
constantly changing, or are possible already gone, but for their photographic
documentation. Therefore, you have plenty of opportunity to look some things up
for yourself. As you have probably discerned by now, you get out of a class and
a text and a chapter what you put into it. If you have made it this far into
the class and are reading both the text and this study guide, congratulations!
This means you are a self-motivated learner and have an expectation to get more
out of the class than just the grade. You expect more of yourself than just
doing the bare minimum. This chapter gives you a chance to weigh your own
critical thinking and investigative skills. Do you practice the “art of
inquiry”? Do you want to know more about things? Good! Ask yourself some
questions like, “what in your opinion can be art? Should something be
considered art if it only lasts for a few days or hours?” Look up a few of the
people quoted or the art works and their sites and their web sites.
Understanding Concepts-Think back to Chapter one, where the purposes for art were exemplified.
How many of these are fulfilled either simply or in a more complex way, in the
examples of site-specific art? Do they also match up with some of the uses if
the elements of art posted in Chapter 2? The principles of design in Chapter 3?
And the basics of style, form and content in Chapter 4? This chapter provides
you a perfect “template” for learning about art by placing the “templates” of
the earlier chapters on top of it and seeing for yourself how well you think
they work together. How have your views of art and what it is, changed since
you first reviewed Chapter one?
1. If you were asked to travel over 40 miles on very rough terrain
accessible only by foot, horse or 4-wheel drive to experience the Spiral Jetty
from the ground level or to hire a plane to fly over it, would you be willing
to go? How about making a reservation to view the Lightning Field? This
involves driving to New Mexico where you are driven onto the site and told that
you MUST stay indoors in a small trailer/hut where you will see the lightning,
IF it happens, without being killed. They will be back to get you in the
morning.
Make a list of site-specific art you would like to find out about, and
possibly visit. You may find some online that are not in the text.
2. A Closer Look – The Vietnam Veteran’s
Memorial: A Woman’s Perspective
discusses
Maya Ying Lin’s powerful but seemingly simple design for the Vietnam Veterans memorial in
Washington, D.C.
• How were some of the powerful effects
discussed of this memorial achieved in stone?
• What
aspects of this piece were controversial?
• What
was done to pacify some of the objections to this work?
• Find out more about the artist and the steps it took for this
memorial to come about, including an act of
Congress! Have you visited this or other monuments?
• Find out if your school's resource center or a local municipal
library has the award-winning documentary Maya
Lin: A Strong Clear Vision (83 min. The first 35 minutes is about the
Vietnam Memorial). Watch it, taking notes on how the project got started and
how it affected different people, including you. Discuss with
classmates.
3. A Closer Look –
Christo and Jeanne-Claude: The Gates, Central Park, New York City, 1979–2005 takes a look at these
two artists' work on large-scale installations that take a very long time to
plan and execute, but are quite temporary. The materials they use are not conventional. Find out why they work
in such materials and why their work is only around for a short time.
If
you knew of a work in your area by Christo and Jeanne-Claude, would you go see
it?
•
Would you wish to own a sketch or piece of material used
in the project as a work
of art?
•
Why
do the dates span 25 years if the project was only installed for 16 days? Notes:
Making
Connections: Many
site-specific art works include a record of the presence of the artist, or use
the body of the artist as part of the site. What might inspire an artist to put
themselves physically into a work? Why do many of these site-specific works
seem to take into consideration the natural elements or the contours of the
land? What is so important about experiencing these works in person rather than
simply viewing a documentary of them? Notes:
Hippocrates’ quote, “Vita brevis, ars longa”,
implies the creations we call art will outlast the span of years allotted to
the artist’s and others’ lifetimes. Yet this chapter makes clear that some of
these art works were not meant to last forever. No effort was made to use, for
example, acid-free, archival paper, bronze or to even protect an installation
from the elements of the weather. Some, in the future, will be much eroded or
weathered or perhaps completely gone, without a trace other than the documentation.
Even so, will art historians of the future teach in their classes about such
works as Christo and Jeanne-Claude’s installations, alongside images of the
Great Sphinx and the Gothic Cathedrals?
Compare +
Contrast: Heizer’s Rift with Libeskind’s Jewish Museum-There is a visual
resemblance within the shapes of the t works being compared here, but does the
similarity bear itself out in the intent of each artist’s work? In Heizer’s
piece, there is a “1.5 tonne” displacement of lakebed material that makes a
shape 158 meters long. In Libeskind’s museum the shape is based upon a plotting
of the sites where artists, writers and composers had been before they were
killed. Is the “absence” or “displacement” an important feature of each of
these works? Would you wish to experience both in person? Does the shape itself
evoke other works of art you have seen? Which one do you think took longer to
execute? Which one do you believe will remain in existence longer?
Preparing
for Tests-For
site-specific art, test questions could pertain not just to a date of creation,
but to a date of duration and to place-Where was this piece created, and how
long was it installed there? Questions might also be about process and
planning, for example, it took an act of Congress for the Vietnam Veterans
Memorial to be created. Also the use of specific materials-why was a specific
dye used to color a glacier red, rather than just using paint? Be sure to
review the materials in ArtExperience
Online and website: (www.cengage.com/art/fichner-rathus9e)
Here is a sample Essay question to try:
Based on your reading and experience with art so
far, discuss the meaning and placement of a “site-specific” art work, using one
clearly described and explained example. A comparison may also be used.
[Extended Essay Assignment: Research the piece you have chosen to write about
as your example, going in depth about its creator, its significance within its
site, and the process of its creation. 1.5 pages, double-spaced, 12 point font,
cite 2 bibliographic sources in a proper form]
Enhancing
your Observational Powers- Now that you have read about site-specific works, some
designed to be ephemeral, some monuments and memorials. Think about your environment,
your home town or where you are living now. Is there a special place that is
symbolically meaningful to you or to the entire community? A natural object
such as a big tree or a rock formation that has taken on more meaning than just
its existence? When I was growing up in Boulder, Colorado one of the Flatirons
(a natural rock formation uplifted from the surrounding foothills) was
constantly being decorated with white paint in the letters C U for the University of Colorado. Some decorators actually fell
and were injured or killed in their attempts to keep repainting these iconic
letters. Finally sometime in the 1980’s the repainting of it was banned and it
was removed. Slowly nature has begun to efface the symbol from the rock face
itself, so that today it is not visible and the view of the Boulder Valley
appears more like it did in the previous century, except of course, for the
ever burgeoning number of homes there!
Take a look around and find site specific
memorials, monuments, installations. Or even better, imagine and sketch one you
would like to see created, drawing it as if it were on the site where you think
it belongs.
For More
Understanding: Your text contains some examples of architecture and
site-specific art throughout other chapters, especially Chapters 12 through 20.
Examining and studying these readily available examples will enhance your
understanding of how architecture has served human
needs both practically and spiritually for ages. Be sure to visit the Understanding
Art website (www.cengage.com/art/fichner-rathus9e).
ArtExperience Online for Understanding Art:
Check out the video segment under In
The Studio and answer any follow-up questions.
Use the flashcard section to view images and
figure drawings seen in this chapter. Create
a study set using Chapter 10 images plus any useful pictures from other
chapters.
Also learn more about the
information and artwork presented in the A Closer Look and Compare and Contrast sections.
Notes and Links to Remember: