What is installation art?

Installation art began in the 1960s, also known as "environmental art". As an art, it is related to "pop art", "minimalism" and "conceptual art" in the 1960s and 1970s. In just a few decades, installation art has become a fashion in contemporary art, and many painters and sculptors have added the title of "installation artist" to themselves. There are already specialized installation art galleries in the west, such as the installation art museum in London, England, and the installation art center in Kappa Street, San Francisco, USA, which has grown from one in 1983 to four in 2000. New york Xinxing Contemporary Art Center PS 1 is almost an installation art exhibition hall. In its courtyard, a compartment was specially built for outdoor installation art. The Academy of Fine Arts also began to offer installation art courses. In Britain, Huddersfield University has set up a bachelor's degree in installation art, and installation art also occupies a very important position in the exhibition of Western Museum of Contemporary Art.. Take the San Diego Museum of Contemporary Art as an example. During the period from 1969 to 1996, 67 installation art exhibitions were held. In recent years, many graduate students from American art colleges have become installation artists. For example, in 2000, there were nine installation works in the graduation exhibition of master students of Maine Academy of Fine Arts 10.

Anthony Qiang Sen, an American art critic, explained that installation art was very noticeable in the post-modernism period. "According to the deconstructionist artist's point of view, the world is a' (text'), and installation art can be regarded as a perfect declaration of this concept, but even the artist who created it can't fully grasp the image of the installation. Therefore,' readers' can interpret freely according to their own understanding. Installation artists have created another world, which is a self-universe, both strange and familiar. The audience must find their own way out of this miniature universe. The novel environment created by the device triggers the audience's memory and produces an experience in the form of memory, and the audience further strengthens this experience with their own understanding. Therefore, the writing of "text" has been helped by the audience. As far as the devices themselves are concerned, they are just containers, which can hold whatever the authors and readers want to put in. Therefore, installation art can be used as the most convenient medium to express social, political or personal content. " . Another critic, Michael Kimmelman, pointed out that the rise of installation art in the contemporary era is related to its document recording function. Its potential in this respect far exceeds that of painting, sculpture, photography and other art forms. In addition, the rise of installation art can also be seen as a reaction to the art of "minimalism". If the simplicity and simplicity of minimalism reflect the worship of speed and efficiency in post-industrial society to some extent, the more installation art, the better, which forces the audience to slow down. So installation art seems to meet the physiological needs and psychological balance of busy contemporary people. Due to the illogical and unrepeatable display of many art categories and objects in installation art, the tension between them constitutes the infinite concept of "arrangement and combination" relationship. At the same time, installation art also fully reflects the changing world, because the static objects in installation art are not absolutely static, their spatial environment and society are in eternal movement, so their own meanings are constantly changing.

Another feature of post-modern society is to abandon extremes and embrace compatibility. With the gradual formation of the global village, ideological opposition has been replaced by economic cooperation. Compromise and ambiguity have become the main theme of the world. In the era of instant love, as the futurist artist said in the declaration, "it is a foolish idea to try to explain everything subtly and accurately by logically explaining its causal relationship." Due to the reality around us, interrelated things are coming to us. They fit together, mix together and are chaotic. "Installation art is such an undefined world-messy objects, dizzying videos, chaotic and strange sounds, metaphysical words, sculptures and paintings. This shows that western contemporary people are confused and helpless, and have to be self-centered, give up traditional religion and seek unknown answers in mystery. The uncertainty in the interpretation of installation art implies this mystery, acknowledging that human cognition is relative, while insurmountable unknowability is absolute. An American colleague of the author, a respected art professor, has made many installations. A few years ago, he suddenly resigned and went to Nepal to become a monk and became a Lamaist monk. Perhaps the device was possessed and entered a higher realm of the "unknown" world.

In art, installation is a challenge to the traditional art classification, and the art classification in each period is the product of a specific social and historical state. /kloc-in the 0 th and 9 th centuries, artists tried to classify art in various ways, some through the sensory organs of the subject, such as visual organs or auditory organs; Some classify art as space art or time art, while others classify art as reproduction art or non-reproduction art. This effort to explore a new way of art classification first shows that the art classification based on the classification principle of18th century French artist Abbe Mato can no longer systematically define increasingly complex artistic phenomena. People are constantly exploring the essence of art and the relationship between various art categories from a new perspective. As Judy pointed out in "Contemporary Western Aesthetics", modern and contemporary art "shattered the traditional scales and landmarks that every art had in the past and were recognized by most people. The first thing brought about by this change is that students no longer classify various arts in the traditional standard sense as in the past, but have to re-study what changes have taken place in the characteristics of various arts, continue to study the unique essence of a certain art form, or turn to study the most * * * same essence of various arts on this basis. " The installation art freely uses various artistic means, which shows that the artistic way of expressing human thoughts cannot be defined by mechanical classification. Due to the dazzling changes in the means of expression and materials of modern art, relying on the principle of constantly updating the classification of art and imposing regularity on irregular artistic phenomena will not only help us understand the increasingly updated art, but will only make people feel at a loss in the end. The unlimited comprehensive application of multi-category art forms is the inevitable product of modern art's pursuit of breadth, depth and intensity.

In terms of exhibitions and collections, installation art despises the authority of art museums. Many installation arts were originally exhibited in "informal" exhibition places, that is, places that are neither museums nor galleries. For example, the Kappa Street Installation Art Center in San Francisco is made up of scattered renovated houses. In the west, the art of museums is basically the art of the middle class. Without higher education, the working class seldom go to art galleries. Because installation art moves exhibition places outdoors, into renovated houses, abandoned factories and simple warehouses, it appears as a "civilian", which actually means the popularization of art and brings art to the working people who hardly enter galleries and art galleries. At the same time, installation art also opposes the art museum separating art and life with ivory towers. It is not only "civilian", but also directly enters life. Some outdoor installations appear in the form of sound sculpture combination, some are built into exotic gardens, some are like buildings in a dream world, and some are used to decorate the external walls of buildings, which really become a living environment where people can swim, sit and lie. However, installation art often enters the living environment of citizens not for utopian artistic ideals, but for economic reasons. Many cities in the United States have public environmental art funds, which is one of the important sources of funds for installation artists.

Installation art generally has the following characteristics:

1. Installation art is first of all a three-dimensional "environment" in which the audience can immerse themselves. This "environment" includes indoor and outdoor, but mainly indoor.

2. Installation art is an artistic whole specially designed and created by artists according to the indoor and outdoor location and space of a specific exhibition venue.

3. Just as it is impossible for a cinema to show two movies at the same time, the integrity of the equipment needs a corresponding independent space, which is not influenced and interfered by other works visually and audibly.

4. The audience's involvement and participation is an inseparable part of installation art, which is an extension of people's life experience.

5. The environment created by installation art is used to contain the audience, prompting or even forcing the audience to change from passive viewing to active feeling in a limited space. This kind of feeling requires not only positive thinking and physical intervention, but also the audience to use all the senses, including sight, hearing, touch, smell and even taste.

6. Installation art is not limited by art categories. It is free to use painting, sculpture, architecture, music, drama, poetry, prose, film, television, audio recording, video recording, photography, poetry and any other available means. It can be said that installation art is an open artistic means.

7. In order to activate the audience and sometimes disturb the habitual thinking of the audience, those factors that stimulate the senses are often exaggerated, strengthened or alienated.

Generally speaking, installation art is for short-term exhibition, not for collection.

9. Installation art is a changeable art. Artists can not only change the combination during the exhibition, but also increase, decrease or reorganize when they are exhibited in different places.

Naturally, the installation art itself is also changing. For example, contemporary installation art is no longer a rebellion against traditional museum exhibitions, on the contrary, it has become the darling of museums. The "environmental art" (that is, installation art), which was originally aimed at opposing the museum's permanent collection, was also "recruited" into the museum's permanent collection list. Take the San Diego Museum of Contemporary Art as an example. Of the 67 installation art exhibitions it held, 58 were acquired by the museum and became permanent collections.