#site-specific installations

[sheltiechicago]

Assemblage and Discovery

If you could list some of the innumerable objects multimedia artist Sarah Sze uses in the site-specific installations in Timelapse, it would be a myriad of items that do not seemingly belong together.

[brooklynmuseum]

“Three portraits of women ( Doña María de la Luz Padilla y Gómez de Cervantes , Mrs. Sylvester Gardiner , and  Wyntje Van Vechten ) are juxtaposed with TRANSLUCENT THREADS OF DAWN (2016), an appropriated text by the early twentieth-century writer Ronald Firbank. His irreverent wit and suggestive prose underlines the ambiguity of the expressions in the portraits.” — Rob Wynne

Installation details and views of Rob Wynne (American, born 1950). TRANSLUCENT THREADS OF DAWN, 2015 with Miguel Cabrera (Mexican, 1695-1768). Doña María de la Luz Padilla y Gómez de Cervantes, ca. 1760; John Singleton Copley (American, 1738-1815). Mrs. Sylvester (Abigail Pickman) Gardiner, ca. 1772; and [Attributed to] Nehemiah Partridge (American, 1683-before 1737). Wyntje (Lavinia) Van Vechten, 1720.

[sheltiechicago]

“Rideau” (2020), in situ installation at Théâtre Graslin, Nantes, France, water, pumps, pond installation in situ.

Stéphane Thidet Challenges Physics and Social Norms in His Site-Specific Installations

Paris-based artist Stéphane Thidet invites viewers into wondrous worlds that skew perceptions and distort the laws of physics: a small wooden boat appears to arise from hard planks, flat stones nest inside a bookcase where paper tomes once stood, and water cascades from a Nantes theater making it impossible to enter without being drenched. Crafted with familiar materials and subject matter, Thidet’s site-specific installations and sculptures twist common scenes into unexpected territories.

Photo © Martin Argyroglo, courtesy of the artist and Galerie Aline Vidal.

“Rideau” (2020), in situ installation at Théâtre Graslin, Nantes, France, water, pumps, pond installation in situ. Photo © Martin Argyroglo, courtesy of the artist and Galerie Aline Vidal

“Chair” (2009), chairs, wood shavings, and sawdust, variable dimensions. Photo © Stéphane Thidet, courtesy of the artist and Galerie Aline Vidal

“La Crue” (2010), poplar wood, nails, variable dimensions. Photo © Galerie Aline Vidal courtesy of the artist and Galerie Aline Vidal Collection MAC VAL

“Il n’est pas de nouveau monde” (2023), wood and steel, 300 x 550 x 400 centimeters. Photo © Cité internationale de la langue Française, courtesy of the artist and Galerie Aline Vidal

[ohtheplaceswewillknow]

Play nicely: A review of David Byrne's Playing the Building

We're excited to bring you our first ever guest post! Anna Jursik, of Minneapolis' Center for Environment and Energy, reviewed David Byrne's site-specific installation Playing the Building. All photo credit to Mayank Puri.

David Byrne's Playing the Building, "“a sound installation in which the infrastructure, the physical plant of the building is converted into a giant musical instrument," strung each key of an organ to a component of Aria in Minneapolis’s Warehouse District.

Instead of striking notes, participants' fingers activated blowers whistling through pipes, started vibrations in ceiling cross beams,  or slammed clappers against the walls. The installation is site-specific: it plays on Aria’s physical structure as a former warehouse and on its history housing experimental theatre. It’s clear that Byrne knows Minneapolis well.

Some friends and I played an acoustic jam session as other musicians contributed their voices and instruments to the installation. A woman sang notes into the gut of the room and said she could feel each resonate with the building and her body. A man carried his cello through each of the rooms, then up the stairs to toss notes from the balcony. A little boy dashed from the bench, chasing the sounds that followed each key he pressed.

I admire Byrne's urban cycling advocacy, which fits with Minneapolis' bike-friendly culture. When you’re pedaling in a city packed with other cyclists, you can feel the collective impact on your own health and that of your community. But advances in alternate transportation receive much more media attention than the latest in building science, even though the US building sector is our largest contributor to climate change. Perhaps this is because biking to work feels more manageable than retrofitting the office to reduce its energy consumption.

Most of us understand how climate change will alter the natural environment. It also threatens the buildings we love and the cityscapes and parks we grew up exploring. Playing the Building stresses how buildings contribute to our sense of place, it and hints at the dangers of approaching environmental problem-solving with an overly serious attitude. 

Its viewers (myself included!) were joyful, open, and tuned into our connection with the building. The built environment is not outside of our control. We built it, remember? We can fix it. But we’re going to need to use our imaginations and play together nicely.

[safetytracks]

Tossed away gaming consoles with mini buildings placed within. Tiger Head Mountain, Taiwan.2011.