Site-specific installation artworks can promote appreciation of contemporary art
This study seeks to determine how site-specific installation of artworks promotes appreciation of contemporary art. The study will focus on the following artists and their artwork: Richard Serra’s ‘Tilted Arc’, Anish Kapoor’s ‘Cloud Gate’, and Rachel Whiteread’s Judenplatz Vienna 'Holocaust Memorial’.
Site-specific installation artworks by Richard Serra, Anish Kapoor, and Rachel Whiteread promote appreciation of contemporary art. This project seeks to showcase some of the artworks of these artists. The artworks under study are the examples of public art. Thus, the public view them and give their feedback on the artworks displayed. Depending on how appealing a given artwork is, it is likely to influence how the consumers of contemporary art appreciate it.
Such works as Richard Serra’s ‘Tilted Arc’, Anish Kapoor’s ‘Cloud Gate’ and Rachel Whiteread's Holocaust Memorial in Vienna cannot receive a unanimous public opinion. Especially, two of them, particularly the artworks by Serra and Whiteread caused a lot of controversy of different nature. First, because the public is not a single mass of people but a collection of various individuals with different patterns of life experience, education, interests, preferences, etc (Kelly, 15). Thus, all of them can have different opinions, some of which, though, can coincide. Second, making the installations directly in the urban areas has two sides. On the one hand, such installation increases the number of people who see works of art. On the other hand, not all of the commuters passing the art pieces are into art and can be called art connoisseurs. People passing by such structures can see them merely as environmental elements, which either distract their attention, or prevent their passage.
How does this way of displaying one's art work help its promotion? The minimalism pieces of art reveal their nature best by locating in specifically chosen places. Becoming a part of space these art samples can be understood better as they have been created with a purpose to divide the space at open urban places like squares and streets. The idea behind the site-specific sculpture is bilateral. Not only has it been erected in order to affect the environment, but the environment itself influences the sculpture, in its turn. (The Tilted Arc, Cloud Gate) You can object to this and argue that the best way to showcase a work of art is a gallery or a museum. This holds true. However, the author of the Tilted Arc, for example, rejected the idea of moving the Arc to another place, “claiming that the work was ''site specific'' and that to move it would be to rob it of its artistic value”(Kamhi). Another reason to add, is that such kind of sculptures are enormous in size. Besides, the idea in themselves is to create a specific impression on passers-by.
Richard Serra is an American minimalist artist. Serra is famous due to his free-standing installations “that often function to dwarf the spectator under their immense scale and material weight” (Mullen). He has changed the concept of sculpture enriching it. His artistic work was greatly influenced by the Land or Earth Art movement popular in America in the 1960s, which protested against commercialization of popular art. They wanted to move the art pieces out of the restrictions of the museums and galleries' space. The idea behind minimalism lies in simplicity of the form and placing the art work into the environment. Richard Serra was commissioned by the United States General Services Administration’s Arts-In-Architecture Program to design The Tilted Arc in Federal Plaza in New York City (Wainwright)
It presents a 120 feet long and 12 feet high wall of raw steel, tilted in some places. This curving wall cuts the space of the square into two parts. The genuine idea lies in the effect it produces on the people crossing the square. According to the author himself, "The viewer becomes aware of himself and of his movement through the plaza. As he moves, the sculpture changes. Contraction and expansion of the sculpture result from the viewer's movement. Step by step the perception not only of the sculpture but of the entire environment changes” (Richard Serra's Tilted Arc)
Very soon after the Arc was erected, it started to rise controversial attitude towards it. The public working nearby, who had to cross the square and encounter with the sculpture every day expressed their dissatisfaction. This installation caused the discontent of 1300 federal employees working in and around the plaza. They signed a petition requesting to remove the sculpture. Also the architect of the plaza buildings protested in a letter to the GSA about the Arc as he thought it to block the view form one building to the other and the view on the fountain (GSA Art-in-Architecture Program).
The critics of the Arc accused it of becoming a target of graffiti and rats and were afraid it could shield terrorists in case of an attack at the buildings. To add more, objections related to the cost of the structure (Mullen). One of the views said: “There was no way to avoid it; one became, willingly or not, a participant (not a spectator) where staying uninvolved was the preferred way to negotiate a public space” (Knight, 20).
McGill describes different reactions of the public to the removal of the Arc. Some of the artists, aesthetic workers, museum professionals assert that nearly every public art work is testified by “criticism and rejection”. However, the case of dismantling the sculpture make such kind of artists more vulnerable. The Metropolitan Museum of Art professional noted that the removal could cause concern but it should not be “treated with hysteria” (McGILL).
Anish Kapoor, perhaps one of the noteworthy non-Western artists, is popular in the West. Of Indian origin, born in Bombay, now is stationed in London. He is known as a site-specific artist. Because of his love to native traditions he introduced in his works bright colors. For example, the series of works named 1000 Names are coated with “loose powdered pigments that spilled beyond the object itself and onto the floor or wall” (Ruz-Russo). Later, he started to experiment with biomorphic forms and polished surfaces. Polished surfaces add the play of light to the objects he creates, they distort and reflect the environment.
One of the prominent examples of his public sculptures is 'Cloud Gate' also known as the Bean erected in Chicago, in Millenium Park. Anish Kapoor named his sculpture “a gate to Chicago, a poetic idea of the city it reflects” (Fichner-Rathus, 207). The sculpture presents a 110-ton bean-like structure made of polished stainless steel resembling a drop of still mercury. The construction was opened in 2004, yet unfinished, as it took more time to build it because of engineering complexity.
The Bean has become a visiting card of the city. Crowds of people are always surrounding it seeking for the best photo and reflection. The polished seamless surface creates really mesmerizing visual effects. You can see a panoramic view of the city skyline and the buildings or your own portrait distorted in different directions depending on the angle at which you look at it. Looking at the city sky you can hardly tell where the real sky finishes and the reflection starts.
Another attraction waits you under the Bean. The structure is not a flat one – it rests upon two protruding edges so that there is an arc and the sculpture makes a kind of a gate one can walk through. In this part of the sculpture the surface is curved under various angles.
'Cloud Gate' is a favorite place for meet-ups and mere hanging around.
Like any other public art pieces, the Bean also aroused some controversies. Firstly, because when we take into consideration the rights and responsibilities of the public artist, we ask ourselves: to what extent the art piece is public. Where are the commissioned for fulfilling some art work artist's rights stop and the public's right begin, asks the author of the book “Understanding Art”(Fichner-Rathus, 207). The controversy related to the photographs of the Cloud Gate. Although, there is abundance of amateur photos of the structure everywhere on the Internet, the sculpture photo cannot be published in the book without the author's – Anish Kapoor's permission.
The Tribune architecture critic Blair Kamhi: “What could have seemed slick and flashy, the kind of showy attraction you'd expect to be plopped onto a Texas fairground, is instead a highly sophisticated exploration of surface, scale and space” (Kamhi). The popularity of this public artwork can be proved by the number of visiting people. If you Google Cloud Gate reviews, there are numerous descriptions saying the sculpture is hypnotizing, fascinating, mesmerizing, etc. “The size of the crowds in and around it are testimony to its popularity - especially for 'selfies'”(Cloud gate). Hundreds of thousands of people visiting Chicago do not miss Millenium Park with its popular attractions. Numerous praising words can be read in people's reviews. The sculpture is called a 'must see' structure. Even people who are not “much into modern art” think it is “absolutely magnificent”. Even those who are against modern art should not miss watching it. Someone noted that it is interesting not only “for its wonderful reflections of the Chicago skyline” but for watching people who enjoy the oddest reflections of themselves. Also, the sculpture is said necessary to be seen in person. “Its reflections are both weird, and incredible, and occasionally disorienting and disconcerting” (Millennium Park - Cloud Gate, Chicago). It would not be fair not to mention a negative review by a Qatar lecturer in film production Anne Sobel. She actively dislikes this attraction pointing out that Chicago has other things to be proud of. She notes that Chicago people should not “let a piece of 'modern art' become the international symbol” (Sobel). Maybe, she just despises modern art? Another controversial artist to speak about is Rachel Whiteread a British artist and sculptor, born in London. Her mother was also an artist, and Rachel knew from her early childhood that she wanted to make art. She studied painting in Brighton Polytechnic and then sculpture in the Slade School of Fine Art. In 1993 she won the Turner Prize and represented Britain at the Venice Biennale in 1997 (Kuiper).
In 2000 her Monument to Holocaust at Judenplatz, in Vienna was unveiled. The Monument is also known by the name the Nameless Library. It is also a site-specific artwork, as the platz is famous for several reasons. In the Middle Ages in was a center of a Jewish Town with a Synagogue and a school. The monument stands on the site of archaeological excavations, in the place of the former Synagogue. The Monument represents a cubic -from building resembling a library, which gave it the second name. The sculpture presents a 4-meter-tall construction made of steel and concrete. It is intentionally very sombre without any coloring or decoration. The Monument is dedicated to commemorate 65,000 Austrian Jews killed in the war mostly in concentration camps (Vienna World Heritage and Contemporary Architecture).
The Memorial looks like a library room with bookshelves, where books are stored with their spines inward unseen to the viewer. This must symbolize that they are nameless books which no one will ever read as people who died could not speak for themselves. The stories of their lives stayed unread. The building looks sealed because the doors do not have handles or knobs. On the plinth there is an inscription in three languages: German, Hebrew and English. It reads that 65,000 Jews were murdered in the World War II time.
The Memorial construction was delayed because of numerous reasons: aesthetic, political and because of archaeological excavations. To add more, on of the arguments was that the artist was not a Jewish herself. There were some arguments about the monument itself but the artist insisted that the artwork could not be a result of consensus (Searle). The Jewish community first objected to the construction of the concrete memorial in the place of the Medieval Synagogue where the Jews committed a mass suicide during pogrom in the fifteenth century (Bell). The large Jewish community said that the Synagogue would be more natural in the place. According to one of the Holocaust survivors and the leader of a Jews society, the ruins of the baroque Synagogue “should be allowed to speak for themselves”. However, the artist argued that she did not see any other place for her sculpture (Connoly). The consensus was found in moving the memorial a little aside of the former Synagogue. Also, there was some criticism form the local people because the erecting of the monument meant then the square was to be made pedestrian. The office-workers the and shops owners objected because the pedestrianization of the area meant the lessening of the parking places (Bell).
Also, the people were afraid that the monument would attract the Neo-fascists to the area and the decision was made to coat the Memorial with an anti-graffiti substance. (Searle) Finally, the city-officials agreed not to coat the Memorial with a special solution. The artist said, in case there appeared a swastika, they could try to rub it off. However, it would” really make people think what is happening in their society” (Connoly). Nevertheless, the Mayor declared that such kind of a Memorial to Holocaust was very important for the city in the attempts of this generation to correct the wrongs of the Nazi (Searle)
This project brings together prominent artists that have made a mark in the world of contemporary work. The aforementioned artworks present site-specific sculptures, which were designed by the artists inspired by different ideas. All of them present the prominent examples of modern art. Why is the installation of the artworks in public places so important? By showcasing their awe-provoking artworks, viewers will have an opportunity to sample the best pieces of art. To add more, this expands the number of people who become viewers and assessors of the modern artworks. The passers by become participants of the art performance. Seeing the sculptures with their own eyes but not through the commentators and news readers change the people's perception. Becoming part of the 'art performance' will be instrumental in convincing non-believers that contemporary art can be compelling. Even those, who are against modern art or not into it cannot stay indifferent. However, sometimes the public opinion can turn against the artist as in case with the Tilted Arc by Richard Serra.
Anyway, any artist wants evaluation of their creations; especially when we speak about public art. The function of audiences in site-specific installations by Richard Serra, Anish Kapoor, and Rachel Whiteread is that the public as receivers participate in the whole public artworks. Artworks become a kind of a bridge between the creator and the viewer, the means of communication between the artist and the public.
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