Installation
Installations are pieces of artists work which are constructed, created or
installed in an exhibition. They can either be temporary or permanent.
Many artists have been using installations as a form of art since the late
1950s/early 1960s. These forms of art include demonstrating/showing
their work through videos, photographs and sometimes live action. There
are many different ways in which you can exhibit different pieces of work
which can been seen below by these three different exhibitionists; Fiona
Tan, Spartacus Chetwynd and Douglas Gordon. Work can be exhibited
through just a simple screen or projector to having one big room full of
different pieces of work shown through different types of technology.
Having your work installed professionally and good will attract and
audience and keep them engaged in wanting to look at your work,
whereas if it looks poor people may lose interest in looking at it therefore
having an installation well set up will keep your audience engaged in what
they are looking at.
Fiona Tan
Fiona Tan is mostly known for her film, photography and video
installations. She primarily works in film and photography, some
examples of her most recent solo exhibitions are;
Inventory, MAXXI, Rome and Philadelphia Museum of Art (2013)
Ellipsis, 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa,
Japan (2013)
Point of Departure, CAAC, Sevilla (2012)
Vox Populi London, The Photographers' Gallery, London (2012)
Disorient, Glasgow Gallery of Modern Art (2012)
Vox Populi Switzerland, Centre Culturel Suisse, Paris (2011)
Rise and Fall, Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, Washington, DC (201011)
Frith Street Gallery, London, Vox Populi (2010)
Rise and Fall, Aargauer Kunsthaus, Aarau Switzerland, Vancouver
Art Gallery, Canada (2010)
Fiona Tan has set up many installations to exhibit her work over the years,
I have found that looking at different pieces of her work, they often try to
show emotions that the images create. For example one of her pieces of
work she exhibited was Rise and fall. To install this piece of work, she set
up two screens playing two different videos one next to another. What I
got from watching this installation was that the videos playing on the two
screens were different but must have some sort of connection with one
another. What I think Fiona is trying to show is that the audience will have
lots of different opinions and thoughts on how both of the videos connect.
Setting up an installation like this in my opinion is effective as it gets the
audience thinking which makes them engaged what the screens are
showing so they watch it. These two imagers below are clips of rise and
fall in an exhibition, you can see the two different screens set up playing
different videos. Setting up an installation like this shows a narrative in a
way, once you have come up with a connection between the videos it
seems like a never ending story and thoughts of the videos.
Spartacus Chetwynd
Chetwynd is a British artist best known for her reworkings of iconic
moments from cultural history in deliberately amateurish and
improvisatory performances. She has a very unique way of presenting her
work to an audience which you can see through some of her installations.
One installation of hers that I particularly like is this one in the images
below called Hermitos Children;
What I like about this installation is
how she has set up so many little
screens to show different parts of
the videos. This is a really creative
way of exhibiting her videos, it is
different to just showing it on one
big screen because there are lots of
different screens with lots going on
which makes it busier and eye
catching. Another aspect of this
piece of work I really like is the fact
that you are given beanbags to sit on while watching the screens, this
creates a comfy, relaxing and casual atmosphere while people sit and
watch her work. The idea of using
beanbags also reflects on the title of the
work as bean bags are often used by
children. Without knowing what is being
shown on the screens, the narrative of
this installation kind of shows a story in
my opinion of childrens life and the way
it can change so rapidly as you grow up,
and I think this can be shown through the
many different screens. Overall I really
like the way this work has been exhibited,
the way it is set up reflects on the name of the installation and in
comparison to Fiona Tan, I would say Chetwynds installation is slightly
more creative and I like the way she has used lots of different screens and
beanbags whereas Fiona has just used two screens and you have to stand.
This suggests Fiona tans installation is aimed more at adults whereas
Chetwynds is aimed more at a younger age group.
Douglas Gordon
Douglas Gordon is a Scottish artist most
famous for his piece of work named 24
hour
psycho. Gordon used Alfred
Hitchcocks film Psycho and made
it two frames per second long so it
slowed the film right down making it 24 hours long rather than the original
which was 109 minutes. This film was very important in Gordons earlier
career and introduced themes common to his work for example;
recognition and repetition, time and memory, complicity and duplicity,
authorship and authenticity, darkness and light. Gordon has exhibited this
work by showing the 24 hour film on big projector screens, he has done
this as he wanted to show people more of the film slowed down that what
they would see in the original normal speed one, making people see and
realize certain elements of the film which may have not been notice
before. Gordon set up two projector screen showing separate parts of the
video, like Fiona Tan did. The use of space has been used well for this
installation, the big screens in the room are the main attraction which
draws the audiences attention to them. I wouldnt say that there is a
narrative to this installation, it tells the simple story of 24 hour psycho
slowed down however you could argue that over a long period of time it
tells the story of the scary event which happens in the film. Not having a
narrative works well as the two big screens are the main focus and keep
the audience engaged and not get distracted by anything else. Like I
mentioned before, this installation reminds me of Fiona Tans in that they
both used two separate big screens to show two different parts of their
videos. I think Douglas Gordon and Fiona Tans installations are quite
similar to one another whereas Spartacus Chetwynds is quite different
from both of theirs as it is slightly more unique and different.
Each of these three installation artists have influenced my ideas of how to
go about setting up an installation for my exhibition. I will take the idea of
using big screens to show my work on as I think this would work well and
suit to the idea of my work I will be exhibiting.
