An Installation reflects an interest in the physical adventure of encountering an art object and suggests that what is experienced cannot be defined. Its intent is to explore the ambiguity of feeling and sensitivity.
While each of the artworks derive power from formalist qualities and intellectual rigor. the effect goes beyond those qualities into the realm of the intangible. It is this combination of the spiritual and intellectual that leads the viewer into the larger, more poetic, romantic and human experiences.
The artists included share an interest in the space between the viewer and the object. For Yves Klein the adventure of boundlessness is explored through color; he called it an experience of "impregnation". He appropriated not only the object, in the case of Venus Blue. a classical art object , but also the space of the observer. Color communicates and provides the physical adventure as it pulls the viewer into a place where pure feeling a. emotion prevail; color takes over the sculpture as texture takes over the form. The effect is simultaneously seductive and disturbing. The fragile surface of Venus Blue. an object of desire, forbids the human touch and heightens the viewers sense of frustration and longing.
While Dan Flavin, manufactured fluorescent tubes have a simple, utilitarian and "cool" look, their effect is quite different. An emphasis on materiality and "objectness" implied in the process denies the human touch, and yet conveys feelings that go beyond the minimalist interpretation to probe issues of sensual perception and human experience. Untitled (fondly to Margo) defines the wall as it simultaneously disappears into a subtle play of light and color. Light and space fuse as the viewer is bathed in the glow of endless and undefined space. It is as though he has created this work for human contemplation allowing for the boundlessness of the endeavor. (It is noteworthy that so many other works of Flavin, are dedicated to specific people.)
The effect of Robert Gober's Slip Covered Armchair is in sharp contrast to the immediacy of Flavin and Klein. The artist takes on the space, not with the use of color or light per se, but by creating an ordinary object which powerfully intuits the viewer, accumulated memories. The handmade chair appears utilitarian, but is neither usable as a chair nor yielding or inviting. It is "the" chair — a generic everyman, chair — forcefully suggesting the absence/presence of memory. There is a perversity in the nostalgia provoked and a redolence to the effect of this haunting object. It collapses the past into the present as it asserts itself undeniably into the viewer's consciousness forcing an encounter with the human condition.
The installation is intended to redefine the viewers sense of space. As the art objects permeate the atmosphere they raise problems of human identity and cultural idioms. The artists' means are disparate but they share a concern for human feeling and call for the viewer, active participation. The work, collectively and individually will raise different questions and provide different meanings for each viewer. The atmosphere invites contemplation, free association, feeling and discovery.
Thea Westreich