Just some more installation namedropping

Before I forget.

http://www.billviola.com/ - Bill Viola is well known for his incredibly large scale video installations. Some that I have seen have multiple videos projected on all walls of the room, such that they seem to connect and create a narrative as a whole rather than in each video individually. You can sit and watch them one at a time, but not without hearing and peripherally interacting with all of the other parts as well. He has also used sculptural elements in his displays.

Wolfgang Laib is the artist who uses pollen who Fereshteh was referring to in class.

Robert Irwin is another "California light and space" artist (who was once good friends with James Turrell but had some kind of mysterious falling out with him).

Walter De Maria of "Dirt Room" fame has another well known piece entitled "Lightning Field" : http://www.lightningfield.org/

... and there's so much more...

The Mattress Factory

I was lucky to have grown up a short fifteen minute bus ride away from The Mattress Factory in Pittsburgh - it's a great resource for anyone learning about contemporary art and installations.

"The Mattress Factory is a museum of contemporary art
that exhibits room-sized works called installations. Created
on site by artists from across the country and around the
world, the unique exhibitions feature a variety of media that
engage all of the senses!"

See their website for more details, including lots of examples of work... great brainstorming material here.

Olafur Eliasson

Olafur Eliasson is a sculpture/installation artist who makes a variety of work, ranging from mirrored crystalline forms to light works similar in mind to James Turrell's.
His "The Weather Project", above, was a project for the Tate Modern's Turbine Hall (which has hosted a lot of large scale installations from artists - check their website for more). Eliasson mirrored the ceiling of the huge hall and created a half-circle of lights, which were reflected to make the whole sun shape you see here.

He has also dyed rivers green and made water flow uphill, among other modern artistic marvels.


Regarding Matt's comments in class on production vs the unique and handmade qualities of some art: Eliasson recently (last year) was commissioned by Louis Vuitton for window displays. Wiki sez: "Eye See You will form the centerpiece of the Christmas windows in all Louis Vuitton stores, of which there are more than 350 worldwide. In addition, a new work by the artist, entitled You See Me, will go on permanent display at Louis Vuitton Fifth Avenue." Hmm. Installation or no?


I have seen one of these pieces in person (I think in San Francisco, although it may have been New York) - it is an optical/light based work which takes on the shape of both an eye's pupil and a diamond as you move around it. (It also seems that Eliasson did a related edition of small lamps which were sold to through LV stores to raise money for a charity group.) We could say a lot of things about art and charity, or about the art historical trend of artists working as window display designers (Andy Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein, Rauschenburg and Johns, to name just a few)....

Brancusi for Joe

The piece is actually called "The Newborn", by Constantin Brancusi. What I particularly like is that he used the egg for both form/shape and symbolism.

Don't forget about Joseph Cornell!

I hate to just default to Google without any commentary, but this Image Search for Joseph Cornell should give you a pretty good idea of what he is all about. Lots of boxes with found objects and collage too. Different from a lot of other work I've shown because Cornell's boxes are meant to be held in your hands - most are less than 12" x 12" and have moving parts.

Yet even more Box Art by Jackie Winsor

Jackie Winsor is an artist who made a variety of boxes in the late 60s and early 70s. (Maybe even now - I admittedly haven't kept up) This was a time when other artists were also working with ideas of the GRID and BOX spaces (Sol LeWitt and more).

I like her work because of the variety of form and ideas expressed, although she worked almost exclusively with the box form. In addition to Fence Piece, above, and Four Corners, below, in which she took a wooden frame and wrapped each corner with hemp cord until the form became exaggerated, Jackie also did pieces where she built boxes and ignited explosives inside of them, displaying the burnt out remains in the gallery, and boxes that were unfolded to resemble a cross shape.

Another Classic Box to Love or Hate

Box with the Sound of its Own Making, 1961 by Robert Morris.

Very simply, this is a 9 inch square wooden cube that plays a 3.5 hour recording of Morris in a woodshop, making the box. Quite loudly, I should add.