Advanced Sculpture, 2014

Project 2: Place
ANALYSIS

Analysis: “Place” in Sculpture

The idea of “place” in sculpture can be interpreted in different ways when it is approached in artwork. “Place” can refer to the location in which an object rests, the surrounding area, or to more complex interruptions such as an imagined space that isn’t physical. Artists such as Andy Goldsworthy and Robert Smithson have approaches to the idea of “place” which are similar, but their complex ideas about the subject matter differ. Place is the foundation of any sculpture artist’s work, and location and space should never be ignored when deciphering the meaning of a piece.

Andy Goldsworthy and Robert Smithson both work in the environment and have a intimidate interrelationship with nature; nature is their studio. Andy Goldsworthy is a perfect example of an artist who incorporates the physical place to create his artwork. When he creates his artwork he only uses the natural materials within that area, and after his creation and documentation, he leaves the piece within its place to merge back into the environment of its creation. Many of his pieces, such as his icicle sculptures or stone works, follow a natural landform or use the land in some way to enhance the piece, but also connect it back into the environment from whence it came. Not only does the “place” lead the artist to the materials he would use for the piece, it is also a way of creating a composition and helps and guides the artist in the making of the piece. Robert Smithson is a similar artist in that he has a powerful relationship with nature and the environment in his land art. His piece, “Wooden Shed” is a great example of his land art experiments and the idea of place. In the creation of this piece he took mounds of dirt and poured them on an abandoned shed till it cracked. He used the place and his actions within that place to determine when to start and to complete the piece. He also noticed that in this work what came after the creation of the piece, natural forces such as weathering, should be noticed as part of the sculpture. Here he used the ideas of nature, natural forces, and his own physical actions within the place to define the work.

The idea of place can be incorporated in any sculpture art work and is a foundation of land artists’ works. One of Smithson’s more notable works, “Spiral Jetty”, had a large link to its place because the meaning behind the work, how it looked and its place were all interconnected. Smithson used the place to bring meaning into the piece, which is represented more literally in his work, while Goldsworthy’s meaning is centered purely within one subject matter, nature. This could be because Smithson uses more of a range of materials from different places and he has to be aware of the meaning of using the materials together, while Goldsworthy’s materials all come from the environment of his work’s creation. Both artists have conceptual ideas of place in their work although sometimes it is a more literal interpretation, as in Smithson’s work, while other times the meaning is developed from the environment, as in Goldsworthy’s art. “Place” in sculpture is a concept that defines a piece of art, its meaning, and its link to an artist’s expression of ideas.