Tuesday, November 13, 2012

Context is content

"As modernism gets older, context becomes content," Rush quotes from Brian O'Doherty. To installation artists, the contexts in which their pieces are presented are fundamental. These artists creating "context art" seek to control the environment in which the viewer experiences the piece. This notion leads to the creation of pieces like Video Corridor, an tunnel enclosure with video screens playing "surveillance" footage of the viewer. I would imagine that this piece might control of viewer's consciousness in a way would be impossible without its focus on context. In a previous chapter, Rush stated, "the museum culture "has become the ultimate validating source for all works of art", but is the museum environment conducive to context art? Isn't there a limit on how much an artist can control the context of his or her piece if it is required to be a subset of the museum context? I wonder what advantages and disadvantages the online gallery format might have over a physical museum with regards to context. What are other ways artists could install their pieces to circumvent the museum context?

 

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