| Process art, like most art forms is not limited to one art making method or one aesthetic appearance. Process art for the most part, focuses on the making of the piece, rather than the finished product. The completed piece may even look unfinished to the unaware eye. I have chosen to break down the characteristics of process art into four categories. Each category focuses on different methods of creation, therefore creating different end products. The categories I have chosen are: The autographic mark, materials determine product, tools determine product, and nature/natural forces as a factor.
The autographic mark refers to artwork where the artist’s hand is seen in the finished product. This can refer to actual marks on the work or even the actions and movements of the artist being seen. The first artist that many refer to when talking about artistic action in art is Jackson Pollock. Although not a process artist, his movements around the canvas are clearly seen in his drip paintings. A “process artist” whose work shows her autographic mark is Janie Antoni. In her Lick and Lather series Antoni would literally lick her sculptures of chocolate leaving her tongue marks and altering the sculptures of her face. The more she licked the more her face would disappear and the physical features would be gone. Another artist who falls into my first category of seeing the artist’s hand is Joseph Beuys. In his Coyote piece, he stayed in a room for days with a wild coyote. They both inhabited the room for a week and viewers would look into the room, and this was the art piece. Although these two approaches to process art are different in the ways of showing the artist’s hand but they both engage the sense of body movements. This may mean that you want to touch the work and take on the role of the artist like in Janie Antoni’s work. Maybe you want to move your body as you imagine the artist did like Polluck, or this may mean you putting yourself into an artist shoes like Beuys.
The second category of Process art I have distinguished is: the material as a determinant in the process. We all know that materials are chosen for a reason and that materials can change a work, but for process artist’s, innate qualities of the materials themselves could control the whole piece. The best example of this is Tara Donovan and her use of everyday mundane materials such as Styrofoam cups or straws. She uses the physical properties of her materials as guidelines for creating the work. For example, a Styrofoam cup is larger at the top than at the bottom. When gluing them together they will angle inward and create a unique organic shape when used in the hundreds. Donovan lets the material determine how the work is constructed not the other way around. For this category of art, the materials limit the end appearance and emphasize the physical shape or texture of the resources. This form of process art often has no reference to real objects. The final product may look like something but usually that was not the pre-determined look of the final piece. The final piece is reached by using the natural qualities of the materials chosen.
The next category that I have divided process art into is: tool determination. For some forms of process art, the tool chosen can determine the overall look of the final piece. The piece in the end may look less finished and almost frozen within the process of creation but to the artist the piece could be considered finished. Robert Rauschenberg’s Erased De Kooning Drawing is an example of process art where the tool determined the look of the piece. The eraser being the tool to create the artwork determining how it looks. Eraser marks and smudges can be seen. This category of tool use can be seen also in artwork where carving tools leave their marks in the final product. Although not meant to be an unfinished and process oriented art piece, Michelangelo’s St. Matthew sculpture shows the finished and polished side of the sculpture as well as the original rock form. It also shows where he cut and chiseled away at the rock. There is still evidence of his tool marks. With this style of process art it can be common for viewers to visualize themselves creating the piece as well, especially if they recognize the marks and know how to make them. Also, this style of process raises a lot of questions as to whether the piece is “finished” or not. Many people unaware of process art as a form may feel that the piece is not finished because they are used to seeing sleek and formal, clean work. Seeing tool marks and evidence of labor can lead to many questions about when the artist felt the piece was “finished”.
The final category of process art that I have determined is: nature and physics. Many artists use the forces of our natural world to influence and even determine the physical presentation of their work. Eva Hesse used fluid, domestic materials that she hung or suspended in a way that allowed gravity and other natural forces to take their toll on her work. Robert Morris used soft felt like material that he connected to the wall and then allowed to fall to the ground with the forces of gravity alone. He did not pre-determine how they would fall and be presented, he just allowed for physics to happen and control his work. Other artists use nature as a subject as well as a process in their pieces. Robert Smithson’s famous Spiral Jetty was created from the land and established in the water so that over time with the rising and lowering tides the piece would erode away and change over time. He allowed the natural forces of the environment to control his work. In fact he took great pleasure in allowing for this to happen and shape his pieces conceptually and physically. All of the artists who use natural forces to their advantage use them conceptually to evoke even more meaning to the term “process art” because in theory our world is always changing an anything in the environment could change the piece. So, in theory their pieces, suspended from ceilings, hanging off walls and in the landscape are forever changing.
Process art is a tricky form of art because to most viewers, it is not the end of a piece, the final, but the “during”, the present time of the piece. Some artists or audiences may feel that process art is not finished, but is still in the course of being made. My four categories of process art creation help define how process art is made and why it is in fact “finished work”. Sure, every artist has a process to the creation to their work, but not all artists use the characteristics of nature, tools, materials and their own hand as the main subjects of the piece. My four categories can be classified as either the conceptual subject or the physical subject. Either way they group the Process art pieces into categories that generalize most all of process art.
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