Art Since 1945 Time

Drew McDermott April 22nd 2013

Time is an interesting concept in art. In a museum, the majority of pieces are looked at quickly then passed on. Maybe some of the more interesting or more detailed ones are looked at for a while longer but even then that time to experience the piece would likely be a few minutes. Starting with modern art and the creation of video a new medium that artists could work with was created. This medium was supposed to entice viewers into watching video segments as art. There were problems however, short looped segments worked well however longer ones are hard to exhibit when there is a specific start to the piece because viewers rarely will start viewing the piece at the intended start. A new trend in contemporary art is light projection. Rather than a television broadcasting a recorded image a projector or several other light sources can be used to create imagery. James Turrell is one of the best artists creating these works. These pieces are successful if they create a space for the viewer to experience a feeling or mood in causing them to stay longer and forget time. They are more of an experience than an image to look at. On the second floor of the Mattress Factory in Pittsburgh there are 3 works that play with our sense of sight. These three works by James Turrell deal with light and perception. The first, Casto, appears to be a red cube of light built into the side of the wall until, upon further inspection, the viewer sees that it is red light projected onto a corner of a wall and is flat rather than three dimensional. Another piece, Dana, initially looks like a flat plane of violet light from far away. As the viewer walks closer it becomes apparent this is not a flat plane. It only

becomes evident that it is actually a room saturated with violet light once the viewer is standing right in front of it. However, the best piece involving time is Pleiades. Pleiades starts with the viewer turning a corner in a dark hallway onto a ramp leading upwards. At this point the viewer is blind due to the lack of any light.1 This situation plays on common fears such as fear of the dark or fear of being alone. The upward ramp is surprisingly hard to navigate while in complete darkness leading to a sense of disorientation and almost a sense of falling (there is however a railing for safetys sake and is recommended to use). Instinctively the viewer reaches out in front of them to make sure they arent things blocking their path as they are deprived of their sense of sight, an unfamiliar feeling for most. The narrow ramp opens to a small platform with two seats on either side. The only way of knowing this is either by touch or viewing the diagram of the piece prior to entering. Once seated (assuming you havent blindly run into a stranger yet) you stare out into a dark abyss as the waiting game begins. During this time your brain struggles to process the darkness playing tricks on you sometimes shapes and objects spear that arent there as your eyes adjust as much as they can to the almost total darkness, this takes around 15 minutes. As you look in this dark chamber you constantly ask yourself am I seeing it yet? even after experiencing it multiple times it is hard to tell. Eventually you see it, its still very dark but in the darkness it appears to be a light dull brown shape. Too dark for your eyes to completely focus on it, the spot seems to be endlessly changing shape but in general it is oval in nature. Its hard to place the object in space, is it right in front of you or 50 feet away? The description compiled by the mattresses

Turrell uses a common technique for building darkrooms here. Using the knowledge that light cannot bend around corners simple turns of a hallway can isolate all light from the previous area without the use of doors or other obstructions to movement.

factory states After your eyes adjust, an amorphous sphere of grey-white, or perhaps red, begins to appear, more a presence than an object.2 Their description is similar to my experiences with the exception of the color, it says grey-white or red however personally I see a brown tint which could mean that others may see even more different colors than these three. Terry Smith states Contemporary art invites, or requires, many kinds of time from its audiences, and offers many in return. Its most typical forms the installation, the participatory event, and human-machine interaction have introduced a variety of distinctive demands on spectators and participants. Some of these are proximate to the modes of consumption within spectacle culture. For example, many installations are cinematic in character, entailing projections of various sorts, but set themselves against the clear schedules of television viewing and the standard lengths of different types of movies.3 The comparison of time for viewing art compared to television or movies is interesting. Pleiades requires about 15 minutes of the viewers time and yet the time inside feels a lot longer than a 30 minute TV show and yet for some the value of the experience inside the installation is much greater than the entertainment from watching a television for double that time. Turrell mentioned in a discussion about a similar piece Sometimes 19 minutes is difficult in modern life.4 That statement seems amazing considering the movie industry is built on films which take 1 to 3 hours to view. The difference seems to be the notion of the change of light. Movies may last 3 hours but each of those hours is spent viewing different images composed of light constantly changing. Additionally the intensity of the light in movies is much stronger than in Pleiades, in movie

2 3

Mattress.org Smith, 195 4 Smith, 193

theaters the light is reduced to allow the intensity of the projector to be amplified by comparison, in Pleiades the room is dark to force the viewer to focus on what little light is there. Perhaps the fast changing high intensity light in movies makes time feel faster. There are certainly situations where time feels like it is not flowing at the same rate or even in the same direction. We might also say that time is, as well, moving in many differen t directions: backwards traveling, forward trending, sideways sliding, in suspension, stilled, bent, warped or repeated.5 In some ways movie theaters and Pleiades are similar. Both remove references of time. They both put the viewer in a room void of windows or other references to the outside; cell phone use is prohibited in both (although this could be disobeyed it breaks the suspension in both situations); and they are too dark to read watches. These factors allow the viewers of both mediums to be dislodged from the standard progression of time as they have no means to determine how long a minute or hour is. The curious thing is when at a movie time seems to speed up while in Pleiades time feels like it is at a standstill. My theory is in movie theaters the viewers eyes and ears are oversaturated with lights and sounds from the movie while inside Pleiades the viewer is sitting in a dark, silent room with all concentration focused on an unchanging space. Light and time used in contemporary art work together to keep the viewer in a state of suspense. Installations involving the concept of distorted time require the viewers to be concentrated on the piece. Without this concentration the viewer is able to realize the difference in time disrupting the illusion. Therefore a key concept in a successful piece

Smith, p.196

involving time distortion is the works ability to hold focus of a viewer and eliminate external references to real time.

Works Cited
Terry Smith, What Is Contemporary Art? (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2009), p. 193215

James Turrell. Mattress Factory. <http://www.mattress.org/index.cfm?event=ShowArtist&eid=45&id=216>. Accessed: 22 April 2013