Project 1: Process
ANALYSIS

Process Art is a complex string of action. There is a cause and an effect, an action or series of actions and their aftermath. Sometimes the artist places emphasis or importance on the action, on the aftermath, or both, and sometimes only one of the parts is ever displayed or viewed by the outside. Even in classical paintings, there is the action of seeing, recording, mixing paint, applying paint, making mistakes, fixing and finishing the piece, but it is not the part of the work that is important: the final piece is. Process Art takes the actions that must happen before the finished work, and makes them the part to be considered through the final piece.

Process Art is often not the final piece, but rather the events in which the piece was created. This art is literally the process by which is was made.

When Richard Serra repeatedly tossed molten lead into a corner, the action of tossing and the lead being acted upon was the artform. The cast lead corners displayed afterward were only the effect of tossing lead, and not the action. An artist’s choice to let their viewers watch the process or wait to see the final product changes the entire meaning of a piece.

Repetition comes into play often; Alan McCollum took from his experiences in the labor industry to make thousands of cast shapes from ordinary objects. Individual Works is comprised of over ten thousand hand-made pieces. In this case, both the process of making and the final arrangement of works represent the artist’s intentions.

Process can involves forces outside of human control, like time and nature.

Grass Cube by Hans Haacke staged the growth of grass seedlings, a time-consuming process that would not have been possible for viewers to see all at once. Over the course of several visits, a viewer could note differences, but the entire process of growth is too slow for a person to realistically watch. In Snail Excrement Drawing, Alan Sonfist allowed snails to excrete inside a box, which after a time left a complex weaving of mucus lines. His Aging Canvas also allowed nature to do its part, exposing stretched canvas to moisture and mildew, so that it would deteriorate as the microorganisms thrived.

Robert Smithson’s Asphalt Rundown is not the slope itself but the pouring and drying of asphalt down a dirt hill, uncontrolled to let it flow naturally. A common aspect of Earth Art is the artist stepping back to nature, allowing nature to change and alter the piece in time. Most pieces are not possible to move into a gallery unless they were built there, like Andy Goldsworthy’s Roof, made for the National Gallery of Art in Washington D.C. Pieces like Smithson’s do not belong to any gallery and so they can not be profited on, something seen as a political statement and reaction to the art world.

Process Art pieces are easy to look at, as a viewer, and wonder what the artist or outside force did to make this happen, and why. The why is so important, as so much of these works can be seen as just an action with no background, if they are not looked at close enough. Each has some meaning, whether it is commentary on labor and mass production or it is the muscle memory of walking and throwing and using our bodies. During an interview, artist Gabriel Orozco stated,

“It’s much more important that the intellectual aspect of the making of the work is evident in the final result of the work. I think that is what is really going to generate the space of communication, when someone looks at something that makes thinking happen in the receptor. The shape at the end has to do with provoking the space for thinking.”

The quote more eloquently reflects my introductory statement, in that Process Art is an action that must be considered through the final piece. Process Art is political, environmental, human and mechanic and incredibly diverse through its infinite mediums and uses. Its universality makes it an important movement to look into and expand on, and expand oneself on.