Art installations

Q. What exactly is an installation

A. Installation is a term used to describe an environment, construction or assemblage, which is distinguished from more conventional sculpture by its physical domination of the entire space.

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Q. Huh

A. Because installation pieces invite the viewer actually to enter into - and sometimes even touch - the work of art rather than merely look on passively, and by appealing not only to the sense of sight but also, on occasion, to those of hearing and smell, such works demand the spectator's active engagement, and are thus less objectified than a painting or a piece of sculpture.

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Q. How long has the genre been around

A. The idea of the installation can be traced back to the second half of the 19th century and in particular to Richard Wagner's concept of the Gesamtkunstwerk as a synthesis of sensory impressions overwhelming the spectator. Whistler's decorative scheme of the late 1870s, Harmony in Blue and Gold: The Peacock Room, attempted a similar immersion of the spectator in an experience of beauty encompassing the whole of their field of vision.

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The most direct antecedents of the installation, however, are to be found in the Surrealist exhibitions of the 1930s and after, in which music and smells were combined with assemblages, plants and paintings to create a total environment. Dada, Futurism, Constructivism and the objets trouv�s work of Kurt Schwitters all played a part in the development of the genre.

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Q. But when did it really take off

A. As an art form, it really came into its own in the 1960s, particularly in association with movements such as Pop Art, Nouveau Realisme, Minimalism and Conceptual Art. One of the earliest installations was Yves Klein's The Void (1958), a presentation of the empty white interior of a commercial gallery in Paris. A year later another sculptor associated with Nouveau Realisme, Arman, created Fullness in the same gallery interior by filling the space with rubbish so that it could be viewed only through the outside window.

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In the USA some of the earliest installations, such as Jim Dine's The House (1960), were made from discarded items found in the streets of the city, and were closely linked to performance-art events known as Happenings.

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Q. Happenings

A. Improvised and/or spontaneous performances or art creation, in which chance and group consciousness dictated the development and direction of the event.

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Q. What about Andy Warhol

A. The equation of commerce and mass production with art was central to installations related to the Pop Art movement. Andy Warhol produced an installation of sculptures replicating stacked supermarket cartons in 1964, and in 1966 he created two separate installations, one consisting of a room containing only silver-coloured helium-filled pillow shapes known as Silver Clouds and another of walls covered in Warhol's Cow Wallpaper.

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Q. It's still pretty much the art form of the moment, though, isn't it

A. Since the 1970s installations have turned up everywhere, and by the end of the last century it really was the art form which, along with Performance Art, really tested the boundaries and made full use of new technology, such as video and computers. It also became a favoured form for artists working against the notion of the permanent, and therefore collectable, art object.

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It is still a genre which has the ability to wind critics and punters up in a way that few other art forms can. Those Tate bricks, Tracey Emin's bed, Martin Creed's Lights Going On and Off - last year's controversial Turner Prize winner - are all installations. However, giving it a measure of Establishment respectability, there is now a museum in London dedicated to the installation, called, appropriately, the Museum of the Installation.

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Q. What about the old cry: But is it art

A. And the old reply: What is art It is if you want it to be - and in the sense that it is a form of artistic expression, then it is, undoubtedly. Installations require more than just to be looked at, they are - as they were originally described - environments which are to be engaged with, walked into, to be physically interacted with. Experiencing an installation should never be a passive encounter and that's what makes them work.

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The Museum of the Installation site is at http://www.moi.dircon.co.uk/

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See also the answerbank articles on the Turner Prize, objets trouv�s, Marina Abramovic and Andy Warhol

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For more on Arts & Literature click here

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By Simon Smith