Page "Installation art" Paragraph 8

The artist and critic Ilya Kabakov mentions this essential phenomenon in the introduction to his lectures “ On the “ Total ” Installation :” “ is simultaneously both a ‘ victim ’ and a viewer, who on the one hand surveys and evaluates the installation, and on the other, follows those associations, recollections which arise in him he is overcome by the intense atmosphere of the total illusion ” ( Kabakov 256 ).

Here installation art bestows an unprecedented importance on the observer ’ s inclusion in that which he observes.

The expectations and social habits that the viewer takes with him into the space of the installation will remain with him as he enters, to be either applied or negated once he has taken in the new environment.

What is common to nearly all installation art is a consideration of the experience in toto and the problems it may present, namely the constant conflict between disinterested criticism and sympathetic involvement.

Television and video offer somewhat immersive experiences, but their unrelenting control over the rhythm of passing time and the arrangement of images precludes an intimately personal viewing experience ( Kabakov 257 ).

Ultimately, the only things a viewer can be assured of when experiencing the work are his own thoughts and preconceptions and the basic rules of space and time.

All else may be molded by the artist ’ s hands.