Site Specific Artworks

HOW DO AUDIENCES ENGAGE WITH SITE-SPECIFIC ARTWORKS?

Site-specific art is artwork created to exist in a certain place where the artist takes the location and environment into account while planning and creating their artwork. Site-specific or environmental art refers to an artist’s intervention in a specific location, creating a work that is integrated with its surroundings and that explores its relationship to the geography of its location whether indoors or out.   Unlike more traditional mediums such as painting and drawing where a viewer can only respond to the 2d image in front of them, with site specific there are more levels with which you can engage as an audience. The audience is physically involved in the artwork which provides them with an ‘art lived experience’.   In this essay I will look at the works of three artists - Christo and Jeanne Claude’S   SURROUNDED ISLANDS, Jeff Koons’ S PUPPY and  investigate how the audience engages with the site-specific artworks.

The installation of CHRISTO AND JEAN-CLAUDE’S Surrounded Islands was completed on May 7, 1983. 11 islands in Biscayne Bay of Miami, were surrounded with 585,000 square metres of pink woven plastic fabric covering the surface of the water, floating and extending out 61 metres. THE FABRIC WAS SEWN TO FOLLOW THE CONTOUR OF THE ISLANDS. The luminous pink colour of the fabric was in harmony with tropical vegetation of the islands, opening eyes and turning heads. CHRISTO AND JEAN-CLAUDE’S INTENTION WAS TO MAKE THE PUBLIC MORE AWARE OF THE ENVIRONMENT BY GIVING THEM A FRESH VIEW OF IT.   THEY WANT THEIR WORK TO BE JOYFUL AND BEAUTIFUL. 

By creating an artwork integrated with the nature that is lived near, seen through windows and experienced from the surrounding land and waterways everyday by locals Christo and Jeanne Claude have taken away the sterile formality which one might feel in an art gallery. The want of touching an “untouchable” artwork is diminished when one is able to engage from the inside out, living the experience rather than looking at picture which may seem a beautiful 2d fantasy.   His intervention in this environment may also have the effect of causing the local audience to reassess their own relationship to the environment, especially as this project involved clearing up 50 years of garbage from the area. However while this artwork has a high impact on those who have the privilege to experience it in the flesh it can only last a short time and in the case of Surrounded Islands, two weeks. While Surrounded Islands is still amazingly picturesque when viewing   in a photograph it loses much of its ‘head turning quality’ and becomes less of a reality and more a pretty picture. Even though the audience is aware that the artwork once existed and that the photograph has not been tampered with it cannot take away the grandness of viewing something so special with your own two eyes. In saying this, the fact that the art is only existent for a short amount of time adds to the magnificence and makes it a ‘once in a lifetime experience’. Surrounded Islands can also be seen in the form from models and sketches made in the process. 

The second artist whose work I have chosen to illustrate the way in which audiences engage with site-specific artwork is Jeff Koons and his work Puppy. ‘Puppy’ (1992) is a 12.4 metre sculpture of a West Highland Terrier, executed in thousands of flowering plants GROWING IN SOIL on a steel frame, and is definitely a hard one to miss. Koon’s first and smaller version of ‘Puppy’ was created for an art exhibition in Germany - this did not last. ‘Puppy’ was again temporarily re-erected at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Sydney Harbour in 1995 before being more permanently installed at the Guggenheim museum in Bilbao, Spain.   JEFF KOONS PUPPY IS AN EXAMPLE OF HIS WORK WHICH EXPLORES CONTEMPORARY AMERICAN ICONOGRAPHY AND THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN KITSCH AND ART. His intention could be to validate SIMPLE CULTURALLY POPULAR images and icons by transforming them into works of carefully prepared beauty SUCH AS PUPPY.

‘Puppy’ provides one thing that a large number of artworks lack, a reassuring simplicity and happiness. This makes ‘Puppy” easier to engage with as the audience don’t feel intimated or scared away but feel it is more a break from the very serious art and happenings of the time. Children unselfconsciously love the work which shows us Puppy can be enjoyed and engaged with from all ages. A quote from Jeff Koons himself “I’m always trying to create work that doesn’t make audiences feel like they’re being spoken down to, so that they feel open to participation.”   KOONS HAS ACHIEVED THIS BY USING 2 THINGS THAT THE ARE A PART OF DAILY LIFE– GARDENS AND TOYS. PUPPY IS MOST APPRECIATED BY THE EXPERIENCE OF SEEING IT AND THE REMAINING MEMORY BUT CAN ALSO BE APPRECIATED AS CONCEPT WHEN SEEN IN PHOTOS OR READ ABOUT.   Puppy is universally comprehensible, and can and has been enjoyed and engaged with by people from all over the world.   

The final work I will discuss is ‘Edge of the Trees’ - a site specific sculptural installation commissioned by the Museum of Sydney in 1995. The artwork was created by Fiona Foley and Janet Laurence. Foley’s work refers to her unique life history as an indigenous woman. Edge of the Trees is made up of 29, wood, sandstone, and rusting steel columns. These materials relate to both the indigenous and European history of this site. The 29 columns represent the 29 aboriginal clans who used to inhabit the area and are a metaphor for the impact of European culture on the environment. In the poles there are samples of seeds and resins to remind the audience of original flora and fauna as well as bone, human hair and other organic materials which reminds the audience of human presence throughout the history of the site. You can hear a soundscape of Koori voices reciting the names of places in Sydney that have been replaced with metropolis. 

‘Edge of the Trees’ provides the experience of a ‘forest’ of pillars. This makes audience feel surrounded, depending on which way you interpret the work it could feel protective or even intimidating. The whispering voice is juxtaposed with the noise of the modern day traffic. The audience is permitted to touch the artwork which allows them to engage by feeling the different textures of stone, wood and steel. The gravelled sandstone which the poles are placed upon gives a rough feel and creates a particular sound when walking over. Unlike some site-specific artworks such as ‘Puppy’ which is beautiful to look but untouchable Foley and Laurence’s work provides audience with site, sound AND touch. ‘Edge of the trees’ gives viewers a sensory experience, taking the artwork to a whole a new level.

In conclusion the ways in which an audience can engage with a site specific artwork are varied and depends upon the work that is offered to them.   The intention of the artist is usually a powerful influence on the audience’s response to a successful site specific work (even though some such as Koons delights in the idea that his work takes on a life of its own once out of his hands).   For works such as Christo’s Surrounded Islands the sheer magnitude is enough to inspire the awe of an audience while the ideology behind ‘Edge of the Trees’ immediately sets up a platform from which to engage.