Installation Art

                                           Introduction

                Installation art takes up more space than freestanding sculpture.  It is generally indoors and is temporary, that is, it will be taken down at some foreseeable time.   We will look at examples and try to decide on a category name for each so as to make some order.

                                          Fantasy

        See a large spiral crocheted net of sorts and people joyfully romping upward inside it.  Note the dramatic backlighting to make the colors more mysterious and alluring and produce silhouettes.

                           

This work by Ernesto Neto is in a category we shall call fantasy.

                                   Public Space

        Look now at an installation by the Canadian artist Jim Lambie.

It is in Pacific Place, a complex of office towers, hotels, shopping malls, and restaurants in Hong Kong.   Can you see the people at tables?  Could people walk between the ladder objects?  Lambie makes floor designs as well, as you also see here. 

                

We will call this a public space installation as opposed to that in a museum or gallery.

                                 Natural Material

        The next example is wall art but not a framed picture or group of pictures.  If it is large and extends into the space it can be more easily accepted as an installation.  But we will show a modest one made of wood pieces.  It could even be made by a do it yourselfer.  

               

There is a genre that runs throughout art, that uses natural materials or depicts them as is done on wall paper.   In any case let's call this a natural material installation, in this case also a wall installation.

                                    Strange, Awesome

        Now for some shock value see the tree erupting through the floor and into the ceiling, done by Henrique Olivera.  Can you walk next to it, or in it, or through it?               

                 

                                 

We will call this type: strange, awesome.  What do you think of this 

type?  How esthetic is it? Charming? Lasting? Memorable? 

                                        Humble, Fragile         

Would you believe wall art and installation can be made with toilet paper?

                        

The maker, Sakir Gokcebag stands in front and gives us scale.

We will call this humble and fragile.

                                    Discarded Waste       

Perhaps more noble installations don't consume new materials and create waste. They are made with used and otherwise waste materials.  See the work titled WasteLandscape by Elise Morin in Paris.  It is made from 65,000 used Cds sewn together over an undulating substrate.

                

We shall call this the discarded, waste category.

                                        Monumental

        That sea of CDs was quite large but look at another made of materials that have been taken from a use and might be put back to that original use later.   In this case there were 14,000 white translucent polyethelene boxes.   Those were used by the British artist Rachel Whiteread.  The installation was in Turbine Hall in the Tate Modern museum in London in 2005.  The museum building was converted from a power station hence the name Turbine Hall.  

      For scale, note the size of the people.  From a distance the boxes look like ice blocks, or changing scale, they look like sugar cubes.  Closer photos give a different impression.  Then the boxes look like common cheap translucent plastic and for me the magic is gone.  Many things in life are that way.  But from a distance it is a wonder to behold.

                     

 We will call this category: Monumental.                                                           

                                       Funding

         Installations are naturally labor intensive and can be costly in materials.  Also, a large and willing display space must be found.  So, how are they funded?  Here are some possibilities.

                                  Funding Sources

Government Grants e.g. National Endowment for the Arts

Private Funding  e.g.  Mellon Foundation

Museum Commissions e.g. Met Announces 2025 Commissions

Non Profit Organizations  e.g. The Public Art Fund

Non Federal Governments e.g. States, Counties, Cities

Wealthy Donors  e.g, Bloomberg Philanthropies

                         Monetizing the Finished Project

    After the artwork has been made, it can be monetized in various ways.  Authorized and certified photos or drawings of the work can be made and signed by the artist.  These can be sold to dedicated patrons.   

      That form of income was used successfully by Christo and Jeanne-Claude, man and wife.  They were the makers of famous public art displays like wrapping the Reichstag.  See our comprehensive blog post on their Public Art.  To see it, touch the three bars on the top right, then Labels, then scroll down to Public Art, then scroll down to Christo.