My first concept of site-specific work was that site and place were very concrete and physical. The first time I explored this type of work, I took it very literally. I thought about the physical space and physical environment surrounding the work. When I look at artists such as Andrea Zittel and Marcel Duchamp, I can see that there is the possibility of constructing a space as well as the boundaries, which in some cases, becomes a confined space.
I became very interested with the idea of a constructed space. Looking at Andrea Zittel’s work, I became fascinated by the idea of creating a space in which one can actually physically enter. This notion brings an interactive side to site work. I feel that actually interacting with a site amplifies the meaning. You can regard the space as an actual place because you are able to use it. The definition of place shifts here, and place starts to enter the psychological realm.
Do-Ho Suh’s work combines the psychological, the constructed space, and the idea that the place itself is not necessarily permanent. His works are able to be folded up and packed to go somewhere else. Place is not necessarily grounded as these type of works show. Place can be constructed anywhere, and as Marcel Duchamp’s tableau’s show, they can come in any form. His pieces do not look the same at all on the inside as they do on the outside. The viewer can only look through a small hole and their peripheral vision is limited. This takes the meaning of place to be a confined space in which there is almost a different world. This world is almost separate from ours as we cannot physically enter it. This is much different than site specific, which I now understand to be much about the physical space
Site- specific work is work that is grounded in the actual physical environment. When a piece is out in an environment, there has to be careful consideration to how the piece adds to the environment. The two need to share a symbiosis, which works to enhance both. The site becomes part of the piece as well as the piece becoming part of the site. The site is not simply about the land itself, but also about the people and the life that revolves around the work.
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