Art Final Paper
Presentation 7 3-Dimensional Art
Sculpture/Installation/Environmental/Public Art
The past slideshows were introductions to the media and techniques of Drawing, Painting and Printing. Though different, they are similar in regards that they are all 2-Dimensional. Meaning they are measured in only Height and Width.
For this presentation we are adding Depth. Traditionally this is considered Sculpture and increasingly this category has expanded as artist explore different materials and ways of creating art. We’ll take a look at some of these categories that can include Installation art, Site-specific art, Environmental Art and Public Art.
It must be stressed that many artists fluctuate and combine not just materials but many categories in an artwork and throughout their career. The boundaries between these categories are porous and flexible.
Sculpture
Sculpture, simply put, is three-dimensional art. The art can be measured in height, width, and depth. These forms are created through a subtractive or additive process. Material is either added or subtracted to create a final form.
Subtractive: when the artist begins with an initially larger piece of material and removes smaller pieces with some technique.
Additive: when an artist adds materials (or forms that already exist) to create a final form.
It is made by four basic methods:
Carving: This method involves cutting or chipping away a shape from a mass of stone, wood, bone, or other substantial material. Carving is a subtractive process whereby material is systematically eliminated from the outside.
Casting: Sculptures that are cast are made from a material that is melted down (usually a metal) or material that is created by mixing (an example is resin, plastic, plaster). This liquid material is then poured into a mold. The mold will cool down or dry, thereby hardening it. Casting is an additive process.
Modeling: Modeled sculptures are created when a soft or malleable material (such as clay) is built up (sometimes over an armature) and shaped to create a form. Modeling is an additive process.
Constructing/Assembling: Sculptors gather and join different materials to construct an assembled sculpture. The terms are often used interchangeably, but they are an additive process.
A viewer can usually get a sense of a form’s three-dimensionality. We sometimes use the terms Freestanding and Relief to describe sculpture.
Sculpture that is meant to be seen mostly from all sides is called Freestanding or in-the- round. The viewer can move around the art and get a different sense of it as their angle of view changes. A sculpture in which the elements and forms project from a surface is Relief.
Freestanding or in-the-round.
Relief sculpture does not allow a viewer to walk fully around it. The artist has created it to stick
off of a surface.
Here is an example of High- Relief sculpture on a building.
We may commonly see a photo of a sculpture but that often gives us a very limited view of it. It is much more advantageous to experience sculpture in-person and move around it.
Urs Fischer - Things Milled aluminum, 11’x 17’x10’ 2018
This sculpture may be freestanding but encourages viewing from only a few frontal angles, similar to relief sculptures.
Laocoön and his sons Greek - Hellenistic Period 200BC marble, 6’x5’x3’
Robert Longo Corporate Wars: Wall of Influence Cast metal, 7’x9’x2’, 1982
An example of high-relief. These figures come far off of the surface.
Coronation of the Virgin and the Last Judgement Carved ivory 5”x5”x1”, France circa. 1260-1270
Palette of Narmer - 31st Century B.C. Siltstone, 24”x14”
This example of a Low-Relief sculpture which shows that the surface is just slightly raised.
Carving: This method involves cutting or chipping away a shape from a mass of stone, wood, bone, or other substantial material. Carving is a subtractive process whereby material is systematically eliminated from the outside.
Some common materials include- marble, limestone, granite, many types of wood. But anything that can have material removed can be carved. Newer technologies can be faster, more accurate and use different materials now.
Using a chisel with a hammer or mallet
Using a pneumatic tool with a chisel attachment
Using wood carving tools
Desktop size CNC machine
Robotic system carving high-density foam
An unfinished carving by Michelangelo shows how the artist slowly chipped away to reveal a human form he was working on.
Michelangelo Atlas
Marble, 9’x4’x4’ 1513-1520
Michelangelo David marble, 17’x6.5’, 1501-1504
Ricky Swallow - The Bricoleur jelutong, 48”x10”x10”, 2006
Casting: Sculptures that are cast are made from a material that is melted down (many types of metal) or a material that is created by mixing (an example is resin, plastic, plaster). This liquid material is then poured into a mold. The mold will cool down or dry, thereby hardening it. Casting is an additive process.
This process has been in use for thousands of years. An artist may create a sculpture with another material and then a mold is made of it to produce a negative shape. This negative shape is then filled with a material that can be poured and will eventually harden. The mold is then removed to reveal a copy of the original sculpture.
Direct casting requires that the original sculpture be lost. Artists use wax since it is easy to shape and then can melt away. It is commonly referred to as the Lost-Wax Method of Casting.
Indirect Casting method creates removable molds of the initial sculpture so that it will not be destroyed. Here you can see how a complicated figure could be re-created by doing separate parts.
The parts could then be used to create a wax version for Lost-Wax method (Direct Casting).
In this example you can see the two halves of the mold opened to reveal the cast object.
At a foundry pouring molten bronze into a plaster mold.
Lots of other materials can also be used to cast.
Resin can be activated with a precise amount of Catalyst. This activation gives the user a limited time before the chemical reaction causes the resin to harden.
The Bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara, from Kurkihar, Bihar, Central India. Pala
Dynasty, 12th century, Gilt Bronze, 10”x6”x7”
Riace Bronzes 460-430 BC
example of Classic Greek Style
The bronze from these Ancient Greek statues still survives but their wooden shields and weapons are long gone.
Dustin Yellin Psychogeography 97 Glass, collage, acrylic, resin , 71.5" x 27" x 15” 2017
Dustin Yellin starts out with a large rectangular box as his mold. He pours a layer of resin in, once it hardens, he then paints or adds cut-out pictures. He then pours another layer of resin and keeps repeating this process until it is a large block. He then removes the rectangular box and stands the finished sculpture up.
Rachel Whiteread creates casts of interior spaces in buildings. Here you can see the cast of the negative space around a staircase from an old building.
Rachel Whiteread Untitled (Domestic) Plaster, 22’x19’x8’, 2002
Modeling: Modeled sculptures are created when a soft or malleable material (such as clay) is built up (sometimes over an armature) and shaped to create a form. Modeling is an additive process.
Clay has long been a popular medium. It comes from the earth, is very malleable and forgiving. If fired at a high temperature in a kiln, then the clay becomes ceramic.
Ball Player 7th-10th Century Mexico, Veracruz
Nopiloa culture Ceramic, 11”x7”x4”
Viola Frey Falling Man in Suit
Ceramic 74”x89”x73”
1991
Genesis Belanger Abundantly Empty the Ceaseless Void
Ceramics, 24”x13”x12”, 2020
Constructing/Assembling: Sculptors gather and join different materials to construct an assembled sculpture. The terms are often used interchangeably, but they are an additive process. Assembling a sculpture might be most diverse method of creating a sculpture as many techniques and materials can be used or combined. An artist can construct sculptures out of many materials like steel or wood. An artist can also construct or assemble a sculpture from already existing forms they may find.
Joel Shapiro – Untitled Wood and casein, 40”x30”x36”, 2009
Antony Gormley – Quantum Cloud IX Mild steel, 86”x50”x41”, 1999
Louise Nevelson Black Wall
Painted wood, 104”x85”x25” 1959
Anthony Caro Early One Morning Steel, 9’x20’x11’ 1962
Rachel Harrison Huffy Howler Purses, rocks, bicycle, aluminum, synthetic sheepskin, printed photograph, wood, Approx. 7”x8’x3’, 2004
Rachel Harrison is known for assembling sculptures out of a wide variety of store-bought items with colorful hand-made forms.
Installation Art
Installation art refers to art that is typically constructed in regard to the space that it is to be viewed. It implies or specifies a link between art and place. It can be composed of any material or process.
This type art is oftentimes large or sprawling and interacts with the space. It may cause viewers to walk completely around or inside to get an understanding of it. Because of multiple viewpoints, use of materials and space; photos of them can be lacking. Installations are best viewed in-person. An artist typically creates an installation in the hopes of making an immersive experience for viewers.
Artists have long created special areas to view their art. But these usually served to show groupings or collections of separate art. Installation art is most often seen as one artwork though it may include many materials or ideas within it.
Sometimes the artwork is particular to the space it was created for, we would call this site-specific. The artist has made the art for the place it will be seen. This could be the size or shape or conceptual ideas that influenced the making of the art.
Kurt Schwitters started the Merzbau in 1927 and is considered one of the first examples of installation art. The artist, unsatisfied with making small collages and sculptures, began building and attaching larger items to his studio walls. He kept adding until the studio walls and ceiling were unrecognizable, it eventually spread into his house. He saw it as an ever-changing installation, always adding and subtracting forms and shapes he made from wood and other materials. The original was destroyed in a British air raid in 1943 during WWII. When he resettled, he began creating another version of it in his new studio.
Kurt Schwitters Merzbau
Various materials including wood, paint and found
objects – several rooms – approx.
1927-1943
More views of Kurt Schwitters’ Merzbau
Cai Guo-Qiang Inopportune: Stage One
6 cars, sequenced multi-channel light installed in Guggenheim Museum
2004
Viewers visiting the Guggenheim museum could see this installation by Cai Guo-Qiang. Six cars were suspended from the top of the space and equipped with blinking lights. The artist has exhibited the work in different ways depending on the space.
Tara Donovan Untitled (Plastic Cups) Stacked plastic cups 2006/2018 At Marfa Ballroom
Phoebe Washburn Compeshitstem scrap wood, water, tshirts, golf balls, urchins, piping, assistants - 2009
Phoebe Washburn creates installations with many materials but also non-sensical processes that assistants perform. When the exhibition is over the parts and pieces may be re-used in a different installation.
Phoebe Washburn Compeshitstem scrap wood, water, tshirts, golf balls, urchins, piping, assistants - 2009
Environmental Art
Environmental Art is a broad practice that encompasses art that exists outside or relies on natural materials. Some artworks in this category are funded privately through the artist and raising money, some are funded through public funds.
We also use the terms Land Art or Earthworks to describe some these artworks. These works may be made with natural materials or not. The art typically interacts with the natural world in some form.
Some artworks in this category are temporary and removed after a certain amount of time, some are permanent and maintained, while others are created with the idea they will quickly or eventually disappear through natural means.
Groups and societies have moved and manipulated the earth for centuries as evidence of large mounds or even enormous drawings like the Nazca Lines over 2,000 years ago.
Spiral Jetty is an early example and still exists. The work looks different throughout the changing seasons.
Robert Smithson – Spiral Jetty 6,650 tons of rock and earth 1,500 feet long and 15’ wide- located in Great Salt Lake, Utah. 1970 - present
Lightning Field by Walter De Maria is comprised of 400 polished stainless-steel poles that are about 20’ tall. The poles are spaced 220 feet apart and arranged in a grid that is 1 mile by 1 kilometer. The poles are occasionally struck by lightening.
Walter De Maria The Lightning Field –stainless steel poles, concrete – 1 mile by 1 kilometer Catron County, New Mexico – 1977 to present
A mix between Public art and Environmental art was Anges Denes Wheatfield in 1982. The artist and a team of workers cleared 2-acres of a landfill in Lower Manhattan in New York. Wheat was planted and maintained for four months. It yielded 1,000 pounds of healthy wheat upon harvest.
Agnes Denes Wheatfield 2-acre wheatfield created in Manhattan, Battery Park City Landfill - 1982
Public Art
Public art can consist of any form, media, or meaning but is created for the general public. It is accessible both physically and visually. If displayed on private property, then general public access rights are given.
Public art usually also exists outside and in certain locations like the previous category. Some key features are that they are easily accessible to the public since costs may come from public funds and donations. Very often because of this funding the public art is voted on by representatives within the community to be installed.
Sometimes public art is noticed and enjoyed and sometimes it is not. Occasionally it makes the news as people may petition to have it removed.
Public art can be permanent and maintained or it is temporary and removed after a defined period of time.
Some public art is grouped together in areas for viewers like the Sculpture Fields at Montague Park in Chattanooga, Tennessee.
Roxy Paine Conjoined Stainless steel pipes and rods 42’x40’x48’ – installed in Madison Square Park, New York
The Fourth Plinth in Trafalgar Square in London receives a new sculpture by a contemporary artist that remains on view for a year or two.
Christo and Jean-Claude are known for very large but temporary public works funded by the artist in artwork sales. The couple would often spend decades waiting for the initial idea to be approved by city governments. The work would be created, visitors could experience it for two weeks then the materials were taken down and recycled.
The Gates in NYC - 2005 Surrounded Islands in Miami - 1983
Wrapped Reichstag in Berlin - 1995Running Fence Sonoma County, California - 1976
This was certainly not an exhaustive list of how artists work in 3-Dimensions or in public spaces. We will revisit some of these elements in later presentations to explore newer technologies. Our next presentation will focus on a brief history of photography and motion pictures.