Anish Kapoor, Descent into Limbo, Concrete and Coatings, 600×600×600cm, 1992
In recent years, immersive art exhibitions have also been questioned by the world: the use of a large number of sound, light and electricity may bring novel sensory effects, but it is difficult to guide the audience to carry out artistic thinking. However, some artists do not use high technology and can still create "immersive art exhibitions" that are both experiential and artistic.
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Immersive art exhibitions are becoming more and more popular with the public, especially young people, with their gorgeous audio-visual effects and interactive exhibition methods. An important reason is that in the Internet era, some audiences are no longer satisfied with the contemplation and appreciation of two-dimensional flat works, but are more looking forward to the integration and experience brought by the art museum as a three-dimensional space.
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The development of technology and its integration with art made this possible. Since the second half of the last century, artists such as James Turrell and Olafur Eliasson have begun to use projectors, fluorescent lamps, LEDs and other more advanced technologies at that time to create, exploring the relationship between light and space, expanding the boundaries of people's perception.
James Terrell, Raemar Pink White, Integrated Media, 1969
However, not all artists are able to translate the sensory stimuli of technology into artistic philosophical meditations. With the investment of more advanced and little-known technologies, immersive art exhibitions have been questioned while their popularity has risen.
Although the audience has obtained a fresh perceptual experience, it is difficult to carry out deep and dialectical artistic thinking about the work. The original function of the museum gradually declined, and even appeared only as a "filming location" in photos shared on social platforms.
Oraville Eliasson, Beauty, Integrated Media, 1993
In fact, "immersion" does not necessarily require high technology to guarantee. There are artists who use, process, and transform the simple materials that can be seen everywhere in life. These works mobilize the audience's senses, or directly invite the audience to participate in them, so that the audience can still recall the meaning for a long time after immersion.
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01 Marina Abramovich
marina abramovic
Marina Abramovich
Marina Abramovich is known for her bold to almost insane performance art, and her most recognizable performances are often accompanied by patience, nudity, abuse, and pain.
Marina Abramovich, Rhythm 10, 21 silver gelatin prints and text, 122.5×898cm, 1973
Marina Abramovich and Ulay, "Rest Energy," video recording, 1980
But what Abramovich has been exploring is actually the limits of the body and its boundary with the spirit, and all of the above is just a series of means she has taken in the process of exploration. So in some of her lesser-known works, the viewer can see the effect of another means: silence, calm, tranquility and harmony.
Marina Abramovich, "White Dragon," oxidized copper, obsidiana, 250×52.3×46cm, 1989
After performing a walk on the Great Wall with his soul mate Ulay, Abramovich realized for the first time that his art could not be personally experienced by the audience.
So around 1990, she made a series of "transitory objects." These objects are often simple geometric shapes, fixed to the wall, and accompanied by instructions to invite the experiencer to lie flat, sit upright, and stand on it, or to stand in the exhibition hall like sculptures, and also to invite the experiencer to participate in various ways with the instruction text – in short, to play with it.
Marina Abramovich, shoes for departure, quartz crystal, 21×52.1×24.1cm, 1991
These instructions are often extremely simple: "Face the wall and press the head, heart, and sexual organs against the square pillow made of minerals", "Rest the head on the quartz pillow and look down", "Stand under the inner sky, close your eyes, stay still, leave", and so on.
Marina Abramovich, Chairs for Departure with Helmet, iron and amethyst erratic, 200×40×82cm, 1991
During the production process, she limited herself to using only certain materials — brass, iron, wood, minerals, pig blood, human hair, and so on. Compared with the visual expressiveness of the material, she pays more attention to the metaphorical power behind it.
"I don't see these objects as sculptures, but as transitional objects that trigger physical or mental experiences. Once people get this experience, the objects can be removed. ”
Marina Abramović, Inner Sky, iron and amethyst erratic, 1991
02 Wolfgang Lepp
wolfgang laib
Wolfgang Lepp
If Abramovich wants the experiencer to be immersed in the spiritual experience aroused by the touch, then the German artist Wolfgang Lepp wants the experiencer to be immersed in the poetic imagination of visual awakening. In nearly 40 years of artistic practice, Leip has been committed to discovering the metaphorical power of natural materials and extending the process of their discovery in nature.
Wolfgang Lepp, Milkstone, White Marble and Milk, 5.5×34×42cm, 1983
Wolfgang Lepp, "Rice House", white marble and rice, 35×15×160cm, 2013
Every spring and summer from 1977 to the present, Lepp collects large amounts of pollen from gardens in the southern German countryside for use in a series of works. For him, the whole collection work is a process of self-reflection and reflection, a ritual that is performed every year.
"A lot of people ask me how I came up with the idea of using pollen to create, and I don't think it's the kind of idea you come up with in an afternoon. Looking back, it seems that I studied medicine for six years, visited patients, and experienced death... The essence of all my experience, the answer to everything. So it's both so simple and so complex. ”
Wolfgang Lepp at work
Therefore, Leip's work is not only a unity of eternal existence and fleeting, but also a unity of personal experience and universal values. Gazing at Repp's work, the distance between time and space is quietly erased by the forces of nature, in which different personal experiences are reconciled.
Wolfgang Lepp, Pollen from hazelnut, pollen, 2013
More immersive, Lepp's work is a series of beeswax chambers he has built around the world. During the construction of the Philips Collection, Lepp melted about 440 pounds of beeswax to obtain a uniform and harmonious golden color, and used tools such as scrapers and electric heat guns to evenly apply to the four walls of the room.
Wolfgang Lepp, "Wax Room (where have you gone-where are you going?"), Beeswax, 2013
Rap hopes to expand the dimension of the space through the bright colors and unique smell of beeswax, enabling those who enter it to ascend to a meditative state.
"When I made my first piece with beeswax, when I tried to smear the inside of the work, I somehow stuck my head in and was surrounded by beeswax. It was an incredible experience! I was determined to create a space that was empty, only beeswax, in which not only my head could reach, but also my body. ”
Wolfgang Lepp, "Untitled," Beeswax, 32×16×14cm, 2015
03 Anish Kapoor
anish kapoor
Anish Kapoor
The Indian-born British artist Anish Kapoor is world-renowned for his minimalist and colorful sculptures. In an interview, Kapoor clearly outlined the main elements of his artistic practice.
"In the process of artistic creation, there will be a series of continuous problems again and again. For me, these problems are void matter, color, time and space. ”
Anish Kapoor, To reflect an intimate part of the red, General Media, 200×800×800cm, 1981
Shine, Stainless Steel, Gold, 126×140×140cm, 2012
Thus, Kapoor's immersive work can be seen as a response to these questions. In Shooting Into the Corner, Kapoor works with a team of engineers to build a cannon. During the exhibition, this cannon kept firing "cannonballs" with a total weight of 20 tons into a corner of the wall. The shells are made of wax, bright red in color, and weigh up to 11 kg individually.
Anish Kapoor, Shooting into the Corner, Integrated Media, Variable Size, 2008-2009
Kapoor had always wanted to get a "state" of color. "If I want to make something red, I want its red to take up all the space you can see."
Intense saturation of colors, sudden, violent bombardments, and the ensuing long, blank silence, the shocking sensory effects bring a strong sense of tension and pressure to the entire space.
Anish Kapoor, shooting into the corner, integrated medium, variable size, 2008-2009
The discussion of time and space is concentrated in a series of large-scale public sculptures created by Kapoor. In 2006, he hung a 10-meter-diameter concave mirror at Rockefeller Center in New York, taking in the city sky. Over time, the landscape presented in the mirror gradually changes.
Anish Kapoor, sky mirror, stainless steel, 10m diameter, 2006
"I think about the architectural wonders that are like myths... It seems that something of a collective will will always resonate with the individual. It felt like a myth, and I incorporated that model into my own way of thinking. ”
Anish Kapoor, Cloud Gate, Stainless Steel, 10×20×12.8m, 2004
Anish Kapoor, untitled, Granite, 202×517×60cm, 2018
After all, "immersion" should be only an artistic means, not an end goal. A good immersive art exhibition may not apply trendy technology, but it can not only bring shocking sensory effects during the exhibition, but also provide us with a boundless reverie space after viewing.
[Edit, text/johnson yang]
[This article was originally produced by Harper's Bazaar Art Department and may not be reproduced without permission]