Project 1: Process
ANALYSIS

S. Natasha Mercado
2/14/2014
ART 308
Analysis Assignment: Process Art

            Process art is only one of a few ways for an artist to communicate through art. From the process of making art, to a work’s setting, audience interaction, and the question of the meaning of aesthetics, there is no “right” way of going about a master piece because it all, in the end, becomes the choice of the artists based on their own interests and what they want to convey. Process art is defined as “a subset of the general category of post minimalism which the materials used, their placement, and the general construction of a work takes precedence over the finished product” (Process Art) . In other words, Process art is the action(s) done by the artist while using his or her hands or other utensils (machines, tools, etc.) to create a piece. Also, within that action is a reaction, meaning that, within the process making of a work lies three factors: the inside factors, which are the artist’s hand, the utensils used (if any), and the materials used to create movement or an arrangement of things (paint, glue, crayons, fabric, wood, string, clay, etc) and the outside factors, such as the setting (before and after the installation of the work itself) and the interactivity with the audience are what changes how the work is perceived as a final product. Process art, to me, works similar to a chemical reaction –an action waiting for an unknown reaction to occur. Unlike product oriented art, in process art the artist is rarely aware of what will become of his or her work because the process of making the art is more important. Furthermore, many artists and art critics have argued about whether or not process art and product oriented art have visible similarities and if they are largely interconnected.

            Process art and product oriented art which is more focused in the end material are both aspects of the art world where the two are simply different ways of thinking about art and working with it. In the end, the artist will get a finished product whether he or she started with an image or idea of the finished work or not. The biggest difference between these two forms of art is the meaning they are trying to convey. Although the meaning of an artwork can be modified by the artist it is also highly influenced by its environment, the process-making, and by the audience. When looking at different artworks such as Vincent van Gogh’s Starry Night where the artist started with an original visual idea of what the finished paining would look like, the process then becomes secondary to final product. The final work is what the viewer sees and criticizes without knowing exactly what the process was for that piece of work. In this case, the aesthetics of the painting become the main focal point of the work. In contrast, Allan McCollum’s Two Hundred and Eighty-eight Plaster Surrogates have a unique appearance to them that is very systematical due to its range in colors and geometric shapes but the aesthetic qualities are not as important as its scale and process. Unlike van Gogh’s harsh and rigid brush strokes and usage of saturate colors over and over again to create a specific image, McCollum created 288 plaster sculptural squares (what he called surrogates) that look like paintings but are actual sculptures that he based on the idea of mass production. McCollum wanted to discuss art as a commodity and how mass producing this objects would affect the viewer, “here you have several objects that are blank and say nothing to the viewer and are in some sense a mirror, even a black hole, it throws into question: What is value? What is valuable? Where is the artist’s hand? Where is the sense of originality? Why are these worth anything at all?” (Whitney) . Here, McCollum questions the process making of his own work and if it actually changes the meaning of his art when presented to the public. Thus process art concentrates on the idea of how to make something, whereas, concentrating on the final art work as the final product can be applied towards the question of what to do; both are ways the artist can travel but it depends on what they intend to convey to the viewer.

            The notion of artistic or creative process has been the subject of much debate and research as that of the nature of art itself. Some insist that “creativity is by nature spontaneous” while others argue that “undirected spontaneity is a random mess. Creativity consists of the original use of accomplished technique” (Concept) . In the end, when it comes down to creating art, there is no right method because both use the function of making –going through a process or system to see where it leads or following a routine process to create what the artist envisions. Tara Donovan, for example, uses common materials such as buttons, cups, and film to create biomorphic-like forms. Instead of envisioning her final piece she lets her material interact together and move the way it prefers. In her 2006 piece Bluffs Donovan uses only identical transparent buttons and glue to create an organic-like piece that looks like algae coming from the ground of the gallery. She stacks one button over the other one by one and lets the natural shape, form, and color of the material make its own art. In this case, Donovan does the action, the process, while her material makes its own aesthetics. Here, Donovan uses only her hand movements (as her tools) to stack the buttons one by one by sticking them together with glue, a repeated motion, which eventually becomes the structural process. This idea of repetition is widely used by other current process art artists. Some artists, such as Ai Weiwei, take the idea of repetition and mass production a step further by including other people in their work (similar to Tara Donovan).

            Ai Weiwei’s Sunflower Seeds is made up of millions of small works each identical to one another, but similarly unique. They appear to be very realistic although they are hand-crafted in porcelain by millions of artisans. Each seed, individually sculpted and painted by specialists, become part of a whole when put together and actually look like real sunflower seeds. Ai Weiwei depicted the manufacturing business of China’s mass production within this piece. With giving everyone the same material to work with, each person was designated to hand-craft these sunflower seeds individually which added to their uniqueness. When put together, these sunflower seeds form a vast landscape which erases their individuality and the process making o each seems invisible but when you take a closer look at them, each are somewhat different. The act of repetition and letting millions of contributors create this single piece with the same materials and similar hand gestures with black ink sets forth the principles of the work as a whole. In other words, each seed, which is similarly made but still unique due to the number of hands used in the process, creates the final outcome –the large mass quantity of seeds. Only, the visual landscape is not visually imagined or predicted before the process making until all seeds are done and put together in the same setting or environment. Process art focuses on the idea of using the materials and mediums the artist chooses in order to manipulate its direction when applying artistic concepts or to let the material/medium manipulate its environment.

            One artist that exemplified the idea of letting the material be manipulated by the environment was Robert Smithson. In his “Glue Pour” documentation, Smithson and a few others poured a barrel full colored glue over a small hill in Vancouver, 1969. The glue was slowly sucked by the dirt (and other objects) on the hill as it dripped down and flowed into space. The process of this piece was filling the barrel with the material and dumping it. The reaction, in this scenario, was the making of the glue as it traveled down the hill. The shape of the glue, where it left its marks, and the overall form of it was the finished product only that in this piece, the glue interacts with a natural environment and other materials around it; it’s both the glue and the organic material on the hill acting together to create “art”. What becomes more important to Smithson in this piece is the process from beginning to end, from when he dumped the barrel of glue to what the glue and its environment created. The difference between process art and art itself becomes clear when comparing the work of process art artists. Process art focuses on the hand of the artist as well as the form and structure of the material and medium used –how it is used, while other artists focus instead on what they want to create before the making of it and the process (or how they get there) is less important. All in all, there is still a what in both process art and product-based art because process art still depends on what (materials and context) the artist wants to experiment with. What changes with both methods is the meaning given to them, whether based on the aesthetics of the piece like the bold colors and harsh brush strokes on van Gogh’s Starry Night as to how it makes the viewer feel whereas the stacking of identical button on top of each other from Tara Donovan’s Bluff piece makes the viewer think about how the piece was made and focus on the material used instead of the final product. 

Works Cited
“Audio Guide Stop for Allan McCollum, 288 Plaster Surrogates, 1982-1989”. Artists. Whitney Museum of American Art. Web. February 15, 2014.

“Concept & Medium”. Introduction to Art/What is the Creative Process?”. Web. February 14, 2014.
 “Process Art”. Process Art House. Web. February 15, 2014.

“Smithson Glue Pour: documentation”. Ruins in Process. Vancouver Art in the Sixties. Web. February 14, 2014.

“Tara Donovan: Bluff”. PACE Exhibitions. Web. February 14, 2014.

 “The Unilever Series: Ai Weiwei: Sunflower Seeds”. Tate. October 2010. Web. February 15, 2014.