Art installations

ART INSTALLATIONS

I Lead-in.

A)  Look at the images below. There are two examples of sculptures and two examples of installations. Which images are the photos of sculptures?

B)   Which of the objects in images from question A can you see in a museum? Have you been to a museum to see sculptures? Have you been to a museum to see installations?

II Vocabulary focus. Study the words and their definitions. Use three words in your sentences.

three-dimensional - having three dimensions (length, height, depth) 

porcelain - white ceramic

tangible - that can be touched

replica - a copy

runway  - a platform along which models walks in fashion shows

immersive  - that appears to surround a person

cutlery - knives, forks, and spoons used for eating food

overwhelming  - very strong (about emotion)

kudos  - (informal) compliments

III Watch the video and fill in the gaps with the words from the list. There are some words you don’t need to use.

sculpture; separation; materials; colourful; sound; story; relationship; installation; box; 

object

For this edition of Art 101 we're talking about 1) ______. That form of art that seems like it should be sculpture, but has way more parts and makes your uncle mad.

 A 2) ______is fairly easy to define. Encyclopaedia Britannica calls it ‘an artistic form in which hard or plastic 3) ______are worked into three-dimensional art objects’.  So sculpture is a three-dimensional thing, maybe it's a portrait bust or a unicorn, or just a plain-looking 4) ______. But it's an 5) ______, it’s tangible, and it's in one piece. You can pick it up if it's not too heavy, or you can take it away in a truck, or you can just point at it and say: “Hey! That's a sculpture.”

The word ‘installation’ is a bit different, call it sculpture’s complicated cousin. An installation might take up a whole room. It might have some video, a bunch of sculptures, maybe even some wind or some 6) ______. An installation is made of many elements that have a relationship to each other to make a larger point or build a larger 7) ______. And rather than the specific objects being independently important, it's the 8) ______between all of them that creates meaning.

IV Watch the video and match the photos (1-6) to the names of installations (A-F). Which installations do you want to see and why?

    

A.   Infinity Rooms  

B.   Sunflower Seeds

C.   Wrapped Reichstag

D.   The Floating Piers (floating runway)

E.    The Dinner Party 

F.    The Weather Project

V Match the artists and their projects.  Watch the video in task IV to check your answers.

1.	Yayoi Kusama	a)	The Dinner Party
2.	Ai Weiwei	b)	Wrapped Reichstag
3.	Christo and Jean-Claude	c)	The Weather Project
4.	Christo	d)	Sunflower Seeds
5.	Judy Chicago	e)	Infinity Rooms
6.	Olafur Eliasson	f)	The Floating Piers (runway floating on water)

VI Watch the video in task IV and choose the correct option to complete the sentences.

1.    In _______ there were a multitude of elements: pumpkins, mirrors, twinkling lights.

        a) The Dinner Party         b) Sunflower Seeds         c) Infinity Rooms

2.    ______ was a huge triangular table, and each place setting from plates, to cups, to cutlery was made in honour of an important woman like Emily Dickinson or Virginia Woolf.

        a) The Dinner Party         b) The Weather Project         c)  Sunflower Seeds        

3.    ______ created magical atmosphere and made a tiny closet feel like an immense landscape.

        a)   Wrapped Reichstag       b)   The Dinner Party               c)  Infinity Rooms

4.    _____  that made a major case for feminism.

        a)   Sunflower Seeds       b)     The Dinner Party     c)  Wrapped Reichstag      

5.    _____ included a huge blazing artificial sun and used light and shadow.

        a) The Weather Project        b)      Wrapped Reichstag          c)  Infinity Rooms

6.    Installation _______ commented on mass production and made a huge political statement.

        a)  Sunflower Seeds   b) The Weather Project        c) The Dinner Party

7.    Installation _____  used a hundred million porcelain replicas of sunflower seeds made by sixteen hundred people.

        a)   The Dinner Party       b) Sunflower Seeds         c)  The Weather Project

8.    _____  made the point that there have been a lot of powerful women through history even if history's chosen to ignore them.

        a)  The Dinner Party        b) Infinity Rooms         c)  Sunflower Seeds        

9.    _____  created an immersive experience filled with hope and wonder, and the moment before sunset that never ends.

        a)   Wrapped Reichstag       b)  The Weather Project        c)  Infinity Rooms

10._______ is an example of ‘environmental art’.

        a) The Dinner Party         b)   Infinity Rooms       c)  Wrapped Reichstag

VII Watch the video and choose the correct option to complete the sentences.

So why are installations importance/important/importantly, why not just stick to sculpture?  If we break it down to its simplest, installations let artists/art/parts do things that sculpture can’t. Artists use installation to involve us more with the parts/darts/art. We get to stand in a space and have a different experiential/experience/experimented than looking at a single object which, in turn, might make us think a little more or feeling/fillers/feel a little more. Installations let artists condemn/comment/commanded on the world in a complex way and make us part of the experience. They're also tricky to sell, so kudos to the artist for taking a risk/tricks/risked.  

VIII OVER TO YOU. Discuss the questions:

A)  How do you understand the difference between sculpture and installation? Would you like to see installations in your local museum? What  installations would you like to create?

B)  Find information about the installations created by the artists from your city or your country. Choose the installation that impressed you. Share your ideas with other students and describe the installation that impressed you (what objects and materials the artist used, what message the artist wanted to share).