The 1970s and Installation Art

As I have chosen to use installation for the basis of my project, and I am looking into a period of the movements history. I chose the 1970's as this is the time period that is regarded that installation art started and became widely popular even thought it has roots in the 1960's and even as far back as Marcel Duchamp.

1970s

Now in the 21st century many historians consider this time period to be one that is of major change as the period if of political and economic change. There was a more active role the public was tacking in politics with protests of anti-war, civil rights and environmental issues. The US government even pull out of the Vietnam war due to its unpopularity. There was also increasing unsettle in the middle east.

Installation art in the 1970's

Installation art is a relatively new approach in contemporary dating back to the 1960s and 70s emerging from the discipline-blurring, irreverent artistic experimentation of the time. Rather than being a distinct art object, like a painting or a sculpture, installation typically fills an entire room or space and is often, but not always, situated in a gallery or museum setting. The materials used vary along with the artists intentions making installation art have a wide variety of possibility's, installation art can be understood as a whole bodily experience, something you walk into and inhabit. It takes into account not just art objects, but the venue itself, and the spaces in between things. Although installation art look as if it is very different and distinct from traditional art is actually has its roots back with avant-garde art of the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Towards the end of the nineteenth century, though, something distinctly new begins to occur in visual art. Some artists start to question the Renaissance traditions. They are no longer convinced that the best art is necessarily the most realistic. These avant-garde artists look for new approaches and new potentials. They feel that the realism of the Renaissance tradition has grown stale and overly academic. It has lost its power to inspire, awe, or surprise. The avant-garde artists hope to reclaim this power by exploring states of mind, emotions, psychological or spiritual experience, political aspirations, and philosophical insights in their art. Today's installation art should really be understood within this same art historical narrative. By the time artists start to venture into installation in the mid-twentieth century, there is a growing sense that all traditional art forms, including those from the avant-garde period, have been played out. Many artists who work with installations talk about wanting to make something unfamiliar, unsettling, and surprising. They also hope to confound and blur distinctions between art and life. Installation approaches allow artists to reckon with all the same aesthetic and philosophical concerns that art has always engaged with, but to do so in new ways, ways that free artists up from routine expectations. Installation also releases artists from the typical constraints of the art market because most installation art is difficult to sell or collect

Orbs - My Final Piece

For my final piece for my FMP i created these spheres made out of coloured tissue paper, i created them by covering a beech ball with PVA glue and the tissue paper. Then once it had dried deflating the ball and taking it out to leave a hollow paper structure, i then put a battery LED light in the top so it would light up.

I decided to create this as my final piece as my project was based on emotions i wanted to create an environment that created a certain feel, i wanted the room to feel calming and relax so i chose spheres as they are a calm shape as they do non have any edges or sharp corners. i also chose the colours for a reason as they are the colours that i found in my research to be calm and relaxing colours.

I think the piece works well as with the spheres floating and combined with the colours and shape gives the room a feeling of tranquility.

The Light Sphere

After looking at Giancarlo Neri's work i then decided to create a sphere but instead of it being one solid surface i decided to make it out of lots of circles. I decided to use circle as they are a more positive shape. i then covered the circles with tissue paper. The colours that i chose for the circles i chose because they are positive and calming colour so it would re-enforce the positiveness of the circles.

One i had finished the sphere i then put several small battery powered light on the top of it and hung it in a dark room.

I also used a small desk lamp to light up the sphere but i don't think that it worked as well as the colours didn't look as striking as when the light was coming from the inside and the light also lit up the rest of the room so it wasn't as dark around the sphere  

Giancarlo Neri

Light & Fabirc

As i wanted to start using shape in my work as well as light and colour, i decided to used fabric and acrylic paint on fabric, so i painted a simple pattern on to the fabric. the idea behind it was that using the blues and circles together would give a feeling of calm. 

I then shone a bright light behind the fabric, i wanted the light to change colours to light up the room but didn't work how i thought but i do like the way it work on the fabric even though i don't like the pattern.

I then tried UV lights

Sandy Smith

Shape and Emotion

Circles

 

Circles have no beginning or end. They represent the eternal whole and in every culture and representing the sun, the earth, the moon. they represent familiar object such as wheels, balls, many kinds of fruit. They suggested well-roundedness and completeness, they also suggest infinite harmony and peace.

 

Squares

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

They’re familiar and trusted shapes and suggest honesty. They have right angles and represent order, mathematics, rationality, and formality. They suggest conformity, solidity, security, and equality. Their familiarity and stability, along with their commonness can seem boring.

 

 

Triangles

 

 



Triangles can be stable when sitting on their base or unstable when not. They represent dynamic tension, action, and aggression. Triangles have energy and power and their stable/unstable dynamic can suggest either conflict or steady strength.