Site-Specific Art

Miwon Kwon readings references site specific art through context in which the art owes itself to its surroundings. Referencing the naturals laws of physics and how site specificity can be traced to a subatomic scale, Kwon goes even further to say that art has transcended that spacial temporal registration. Kwon mentions the evolution of sculpture, and how modernist sculpture relies on the pedestal to dissect the sculpture from it physical location. This emphasis on a divergence between the object and geography in which the sculpture is found grant the object the authority of existing in an abstract realm, and hence, increase the sculptures referential basis, as well as possible avenues of interpretation. When relating the reading back to the "put it here" assignment, I realized a similar play of locality versus object was at play. For the put it here installation, an abandoned plot of land was transformed into a sculptural retreat. Trash was first removed from the grounds and then essentially re-distrubuted in a controlled and organized manor. This re-interpretation of space as a result of a re-organization of material that had preexisted in the space very much conforms to the Kwon's earlier notions of space time in accordance with the well know physical laws. These physical laws that tell us that matter is inseparable from space. However, something radical occurred after all the re-organizing was complete. While stepping back on to the street to observe what we had done from a detached vantage point, we realized that our plot of land no longer assumed the identity it had before as a result of this simple re-organiztion of preexisting materials. So our piece very much existed within the fundamental constraints of the physical laws of space and time, seeing as the material was fundamentally derived and hence dependent on the land. But the other could be said too, the plot of land, previous to our state of play, was registered as a local dump site, and also the lot to an abandoned building that had burnt down. So the land very much registered as just that, an unwanted, unused property that instinctively got turned into a local dump site by the locals. But after some material was removed and re-organized, the land assumed a new, positive value.