'One Place after Another: Site specific Art and the Local Idendity'- Miwon Kwon
Kwon presents us with a good critical historical overview of public and [or] site specific art from the 1960's onwards, highlighting the commodification of art and examining site specific art as a place of lost identity. She builds on a relationship between the art work and its site specification, incorporating the physical conditions of the site location which is 'intregal to production, presentation and reception' (P.1)
The book seeks to rethink site specific work as a cultural negotiator and is aiming towards a broader social, economic and political framework that will merge urban life and urban space, potentially drawing them together. Kwon highlights the work of artists such as Mark Dion, Richard Serra and Fred wood among others.
Having read this book I had hoped to discover ideas that resonated with my own ideas. while this text did formulate ideas for me, I felt I was reading a history book on past and present art concepts.
This book interests me in terms of site geography. While reading, I got a memory of being on a school tour when i was in secondary school, we went to visit the Hugh Lane Gallery in Dublin. I remembered we were guided around the gallery, then we were brought to see Francis Bacon's Studio space. I was puzzled to discover that Bacon's Studio contents had been donated from his London home ( and studio space) to the Hugh Lane Gallery in Dublin. They had hired a team of archaeologists who mapped the space, studied his working space, took photographs, tags and catalogued everything before removing them and relocating his working space to Dublin. I wondered at the time why they would even consider doing such a thing. Having relocated every item (7500 pieces in fact , a vast array of the artists materials including paint tubes, books, cuttings, newspapers, notes, drawings..) of this artists studio and placing them into a manifested organised space. Reorganized chaos one could call it! Bacon once said about his studio , 'I feel at home in this chaos as chaos suggests images to me'. I do not think he would have felt at home in his relocated studio space as personal space does not compile of material things alone. It is this 'anti- commercial ' site referenced art piece as Kwon describes as incorporating the ' physical conditions of a particular location as integral to production, presentation and reception of art'(P.1)
Can we describe Bacon's studio space as site specific art as this space was site specific? The after- life of site specific. we could also describe it as site responsive as Bacon is responding to his chaotic surroundings of [home] life adjacent to his studio?
Kwon discussed the work of Richard Serra, providing us with another aspect to site specific works. In 1981 Serra installed a sculpture Tilted Arc in the federal plaza in New York city. It had been commissioned by the Percent for Arts Scheme. Serra created a curved or tilted arc. This arc was fabricated from solid steel that stretched half way across the plaza providing a barrier for those walking through the open public space. The giant steel wall generated controversy as soon as it was erected, mostly from those working in the general area of the plaza. the general consensus was that it should be removed as it was disrupting public accessibility to a public space. Serra insisted that this was a site specific piece and would oppose the relocation of it.
The case was brought to court and 8 years after its installation is it removed by federal workers during the night and brought to a scrap yard.
"The viewer becomes aware of himself and of his movement through the plaza. As he moves, the sculpture changes. Contraction and expansion of the sculpture result from the viewer's movement. Step by step the perception not only of the sculpture but of the entire environment changes." Serra.
If the artist and the public users worked collaboratively would the piece still exist?
If the piece was site specific, why were the public and everyday users not considered, surely it cannot be site specific without considering all aspects of the site, or can we consider this a selfish act in relation to the art- art for art sake? For me it highlights the unstable relationship between with [public] art, location and the public sphere.
In relation to Serra's work Kwon wishes to remind us that the electing committee shares some of the responsibility; 'the discrepancy between the values of the committee of the art experts, who obviously responded to Serra's already established international reputation as an artist, and the criteria guiding the administrators of the GSA.. who deferred to the experts on issues of artistic merit'. (p.71)
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In his book Relational Aesthetics, Nicholas Bourriaurd notes that relational aesthetics celebrates the notion of art that engages in 'the realm of social interaction and content'. Bourriaurd is a curator Whereas Claire Bishop criticises the current discourse about the ' relational' practices such as public art, social practice, collaborative art practices and so on..
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