Grace De Oro /Advanced Sculpture, 2014 |
Project 2: Place |
When trying to distinguish what place meant in relation to site-specific artworks in the past couple weeks and what it meant to an artist I soon realized that I had to look past what I traditionally know. A place can be defined as a particular portion of space, whether of definite or indefinite extent, it can be space in general (ex. time and place),a portion of space available or designated for or being used by someone/ something (Merriam Webster). But I soon understood that the traditional dictionary definition was not what I needed. For example when Andy Goldsworthy begins to create a body of art he doesn’t just pull out his pencil and pad of paper or power tools to construct a large sculpture, rather he uses his place as the supplier and canvas for his work. He attempts to blend his works in with the environments to create a visually aweing piece that assimilates with nature. Goldsworthy’s works are not always permanent but rather all subject to the elements of weather and of course time. His notion of time and the temporary aspect of life play in to the concept of place because each of the places has its own conditions, advantages and disadvantages (Binkly). The place in which Goldsworthy creates his bodies of work is very important to him being that he was influences by agriculture is whole life and has a deep connection with the earth. Goldsworthy defiantly uses his surroundings to get an idea and springs from there. In contrast unlike Andy Goldsworthy who uses the environment or place to influence the work of Thomas Demand, a German artist, creates weightless exact paper replicas of environments with social or political meaning of an actual place. Demand takes sites that have been glorified with their own stories about what happened in this place and makes their ‘fictional aura’ a literal one (Frank). For these two artists the notion of a site or place is very different. The pros and cons to artworks that follow this approach are variable. Some critics may argue that a con to this artwork approach is that the sites are so necessary to the artwork that they may create too many variables or parameters for the artwork. If Goldsworthy wanted to create a red line and there was not something in nature red available to him he is not going to pull out a 24 pack of crayons to make it. A pro to all of this is that no two things are alike and it really allows the artist to exploit their craft to the fullest. There are so many different sub-categories to site-specific artwork from earthworks and physical places in nature or urban life to site responsive and memory or imagined spaces. This allows for the artist to create and approach their artwork in many different ways.
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