Installation Art

This book explores how installation art developed into an interdisciplinary genre in the 1960s, and how its special intertwinement of the visual and the performative has acted as a catalyst for the generation of new artistic phenomena. It investigates how it became one of today's most widely used art forms, increasingly expanding into consumer, popular and urban cultures, where the installations' often spectacular appearances ensure that they fit into contemporary demands for sense-provoking and immersive cultural experiences. Making an important contribution to the development of the critical and theoretical discourse on installation art, Ring Petersen addresses a series of basic questions: What is an installation? What techniques does it employ? How does installation art affect its viewers? How can we explain the rise of installation art in a cultural-historical perspective? Answers to these questions are pursued through analyses of installation art's spatial, temporal and discursive aspects as well as its reception aesthetics and cultural-historical contexts, and through analyses of a large number of works from a variety of sub-genres, including performance installations, video installations, installational exhibitions and recent use of installation in commercial contexts, including by artists such as Bruce Nauman, Olafur Eliasson, Mona Hatoum, Pipilotti Rist, Ilya Kabakov, Superflex, Thomas Hirschhorn, Carsten Höller, Terike Haapoja and ART + COM.

"Published in oversize format, this book is packed with information. Petersen offers a global view of the installation art form, popularized during the 1960s and 1970s and still going strong. The book's eleven chapters, introduction, and epilogue offer an in-depth exploration of time, space, and representation. Installation art is often constructed using mixed materials, including glass, video, wood, canvas, and found objects. The author starts with a definition of this often misunderstood genre, including that it involves not only the work itself but the space it occupies and the audience's interaction with it. Installation's close relationship to performance and theater is also examined. Artists such as Eliasson, Graham, Kaprow, Koch, Viola, and Nauman serve as examples of the variety of approaches to the topic. Petersen supports her discussion with extensive notes and a bibliography. . . . The book fills a gap in the literature on this important art form, giving it a much-needed, thorough critical review. . . . Recommended." -- "Choice"

Anne Ring Petersen is associate professor in the Department of Arts and Cultural Studies at the University of Copenhagen, Denmark. Her research focuses on contemporary art often in a cross-cultural perspective. Recent publications include the anthology Contemporary Painting in Context.