How to Create an Installation...

Thinking and planning towards testing time I have been considering how other artists tackle the display of objects. How objects are displayed can influence our perception and how we interact with the artwork.

I think it might be useful to consider the qualities I want to express within my own work. I do not just want to transfer elements of the site to the gallery space; for me it is very important that the work is transformative and speaks of my own transformation within the woodland space. A brief list that might encapsulate this:

space

light

sensory stimulation

tranquil

atmospheric

encompassing
intriguing

So how can I make sure this comes across in my work? Perhaps by looking a little at some examples of artists creating a similar mood, I can unpick what it is I am looking for.

Ruth Moillet - Bluebell, installation at Hebden Bridge sculpture park

light, airy, vast, encompassing...

...but does the work have greater resonance in photographic form?

Dome d' Ombre - Source, installation in the crypt of St-Martin-on-the-Hill, Scarborough

eerie, cool, tranquil, sensory, space, particular to place...

...but both of these works rely upon being in a specific site...
...how can this experience be translated to another location?

Henny Burnett - Uncle Eric's Box, 2001

atmospheric, intriguing, detailed, textured...

The Shoemaker's Shrine, 2008

light, luminosity, sensitivity, detail, space

Chika Oghi - Floating Grass

light, space, tranquility, gentle movement

Andy Goldsworthy - Wood Room and Leaf Stalk Room, 2007

...weightiness, space, light, enveloped, atmospheric, textured, scented, physical

...awareness of light and space, vast, delicate

Jorge Otero-Pailos - The Ethics of Dust: Doge's Palace, 2009

...traces, light, space, illumination, presence

So where does all this get me? Having spent hours on this I must now sum up and consider what I can learn from my research; the things that speak to me have the following characteristics:

• LIGHT is an important media - artworks are illuminated, often from behind, showing transparency/translucency
• I need to use a big SPACE to give my work the chance to speak on a larger, landscape scale. I also need to make sure I am adventurous with the space
• Weightiness/weightlessness can convey a sense of tranquility, air and movement - several of the works above are SUSPENDED and appear to almost hover in the space
• TEXTURE & DETAIL create interest on a minute scale and add to the sensory quality of the work
• I need to consider elements that might stimulate more than the visual sense; SMELL, TOUCH, SOUND... but without creating a corny woodland themed space.

Plenty to be getting on with then!