Discussions of installation art often develop out of an analysis of its similarities and differences to other art forms. Doing so helps to ground it into critical engagement we are well familiar with. In this paper, I take a different approach. I look at installation art in relation to a cognate practice not ordinarily understood as art-making: that of exhibition-making. We will see that this comparison is illuminating since installation art and exhibitions have two kinds of meaning-bearing properties in common: display and site-responsiveness. I explore this shared ground, and make some remarks on how this helps illuminate the deep relationship between installation art and exhibition-making.
The first section introduces the concept of meaning-bearing features, which will be key to my analysis. The second section looks at three very different works of installation art. Despite their differences, we will see that they share two kinds of meaning-bearing features: a display, which is also to say an arrangement of objects, and responsiveness to the site they occupy, which is typically, though not necessarily, a gallery space. In the third section, I look at exhibitions, their meaning-bearing features, and how they gain their distinctive meaning from arranging art objects in a space, and from responding to that space. So, like installation art, exhibitions gain their distinctive meaning through display and site-responsiveness. Finally, in the fourth section, I indicate where this account could develop further.
Source: Article Abstract
