Installation Art as Audible Spaces

Bilge Evrim Erkin (bilgeaydogan@gmail.com)

PhD Candidate, Istanbul Technical University, Turkey

Introduction
‘Man’s nature is twofold, an outer and an inner. The senses to
which he offers himself as a subject of Art, are those of Vision and
of Hearing: to the eye appeals outer man, the inner to the ear’
Richard Wagner (Wagner, 1849: 26)

We are living in a world full of sounds and objects surrounding us. We receive information from
those stimuli through our senses, we learn about them and also give meaning to them. This is the
fundamental act of interpreting life. It is as real and in the world, as our own existence.

In a broader sense, experiencing an installation art involves similar interactions. It is where

objects are arranged or gathered in a place to be perceived as a whole. From the viewer’s point of
view, the space of art becomes a real surrounding. In earlier times Dadaists, Constructivists and
Bauhaus artists took advantage of these kinds of spatial possibilities. In this context, the moment
of interpreting an art object expanded within its space and by this total sensory experience the
viewer became a participant, similar to living in everyday life.

Dealing with art – based on everyday objects - expands not only the dimensions of art and life
itself but also opens up our minds to new aesthetic approaches such as the ready-made. For
example, Marcel Duchamp was associated with Cubist, Dadaist and Surrealist movements and
came up with the idea of using real objects. But it was a crucial act of its time and no-one could
understand its meaning.

During the so-called modernist period of Western art, artists went through new ideas and
representations. Achieving a pure art form was the main goal for those avant-garde artists.
Clement Greenberg emphasized this modernist tendency by “the use of the characteristic methods
of a discipline to criticize the discipline itself” (Greenberg, 1965: 773). In these sense, Cubists
tried to out the idea into practice by reforming images. They soon became aware of found objects
such as newspapers, photographs and tactile products. When those objects were used on canvas
as parts of an art work, they established up a link between the physical moment of the spectator
and representational art. But these objects were not ready to be perceived as art objects in their
own right. Within several years, this was accomplished by Duchamp’s Fountain signed with a
fictitious name in 1917. This was not an installation as such, but it marked the beginning of the
blurring of the distinction between an everyday object and a work of art.

Whether formed by ready-mades or not, the existence of installation art is determined both within
and outside its space. In this sense, the site of the installation turns in to a content of the work
itself. This is what the minimalist artists of the 1960s recognized. As Douglas Crimp noted “the

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coordinates of perception were established as existing not only between spectator and the work
but among spectator, art work, and the place inhabited by both” (Crimp, 1993: 154).

Correspondences between hearing and seeing

Hearing and seeing are two of the most fundamental senses. Their co-functioning gathers a
collage of the audiovisual environment while we wander around. They have, indeed, numerous
common functions. Both have similar illusional responses like Shepard tones and vision.
Referring to their respective art disciplines, they share a common terminology, too; such as
harmony, rhythm, tone, colour, form, and structure. Interestingly some of these terms are related
to spatial percepts like high, low, ascending, descending, vertical, open, closed, thick and thin
(Schafer, 1994: 124). This common state could help us to see more clearly how these disciplines
come closer when one of them is trying to emerge from its definitive formation, as in historical
encounters with impressionist music and painting, and the manifestation of the ideas of Futurism.
Through their well-known correspondences Kandinsky and Schönberg reached the point of
breaking their connections with traditional norms of arts. Kandinsky abandoned known repetitive
form and transformed the image into abstract depictions. On the other hand Schönberg
challenged tonality in music. This was the beginning of art overcoming its hierarchic structure
and becoming more liberated.

Synaesthesia generates another common state between visual art, music and also poetry. Already
explored by Newton and Goethe and became a topic of intensive scientific investigation from the
late 19th century till the end of the second quarter of the 1900s. Within this period, visual artists
and musicians were deeply involved with this phenomenon, which is basically defined as a
transition of the senses. It manifests itself mainly in ‘seeing’ music or ‘hearing’ the colour of
sounds. It embodies subjectivity and evokes personal associations. Like Scriabin, his
contemporary in visual art, Kandinsky, was also inspired by this inner sense.

At this point Wagner’s theoretical writings on ‘Gesamtkunstwerk’ (total work of art) should be
mentioned. In his view, a unified art form involving visual, aural and narrative text would
reinforce artistic receptivity. This subjective matter for both producing and experiencing the work
of art was appropriated by modernist principles. Consequently, composers and visual artists
dealing with synaesthetic approaches were inspired by Wagnerian ideas. As Miller noted
“Gesamtkunstwerk, consummate modernist art work, alienated individual in bringing them in
contact with others, with nature and the core of life itself” (Miller, 2002: 48).

If we focus on installation art after the 1950s, connections with these prior developments become
more apparent. In the first half of the 20 th century, art became interested in itself and individual
perception. It is conceivable to think of art from that period as aiming at pure form of art. In
addition to all these theoretical issues, various kinds of methods were accrued. And installation
art is one of the responses of those processes flowing out of the first decades of second half of the
century.

Füsun Onur’s Musical Thinking

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Füsun Onur (b.1938) is an artist who is committed to Istanbul. Unlike other artists of her
generation, she has chosen to stay in her hometown rather than a place in which there is no
satisfying scene for contemporary art. Her life and art works are united. Like the atmosphere of
Onur’s works, the same careful eyes also arrange the environment of her daily life. Gathering
objects may also be regarded as a general response that is a peculiar to women’s sensibilities. She
uses various kinds of craft techniques, especially traditional female crafts, which also intensify
the artistic expression. Like Louise Bourgeois, Onur builds up her own mythology from her
childhood memories.

Füsun Onur is one of the pioneer artists of Turkish Contemporary Art. She studied sculpture at
the State Fine Art Academy, and after completing her studies in 1963 she had the opportunity to
go to America with Fulbright scholarship. Onur was interested in Existentialism and began to
study philosophy at the American University in Washington DC. She formulated her ideas on art
theory with her Master’s thesis entitled “The Art Object as a Possible Self in a Possible World,
publicly put forth on its own account as a possibility of being”.

From the beginning of her artistic career, Onur always dealt with material and spatial issues.
Whether in her early drawings, two-dimensional works or geometric compositions, the dialogue
between the image and its environment is delicately constructed. In this manner she was never
constrained by the limits of sculpture. She went beyond them and added to her works the
temporal aspect of art.

During installation processes, Onur is influenced by the idea of music. Her starting point is to
transform inaudible music into visible form. She mentions that just like a synaesthetic experience
“when I hear music, I can almost touch it. It is soft or hard, heavy or light, bright or dark. I
perceive the space which music creates” (Brehm, 2007: 98). On the other hand, the rhythmic
structure of elements and temporal perception also corresponds to music itself. One of her early
work (Variations, 1976), which was placed in front of the Istanbul Archaeology Museum,
involved serial repetition of symbolic pedestals (Fig. 1).

Fig. 1 - Füsun Onur, Untitled Variations, Archaeological Museum, Istanbul 1976

Those symbolic pedestals were implemented in front of the columned façade of the museum.
Thus, the relationship between the objects and their environment became more relevant by their
corresponding form and repetitive positions. In addition, the roles of figure and ground change
between the objects and the building surrounding them. Just like hearing a piece of music. While

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one listens to a piece of music, one does not have to pay attention to every detail but the whole
piece.

Onur’s Souvenir de Dolmabahçe had a similar arrangement. In this installation objects were
selected and implemented in the garden of a 19 th century palace. Using pumpkins like sculptures
on plinths an ironic meaning linked to the palace was created. Placing the plinths and the garden
chairs side by side formed a rhythmic structure. Being connected with cords and bands also
strengthened its flow. Both examples enhance the perception of time. They were just like a
musical form or a counterpoint articulated in relationship to the buildings.

“It was started with Counterpoint - all of those years, I was yearning to do this, then all of a
sudden it came” (Brehm, 2007: 100). Füsun Onur described her environment-like installation
Counterpoint with Flower in these words. It was created in Taksim Art Gallery in 1982. In
addition to her previous examples, this installation intervened in the gallery space. The whole
room was covered with the purpose of simulating an underwater environment. However, there
were no references to a rhythmic structure in this case; Onur’s main goal was to create the feeling
of experiencing time in a concrete place. The idea was stated in the text accompanying the work
“… it’s a visual counterpoint. It’s without sound. Because it is visual, it is quiet. But isn’t music
silent before it starts and after it has ended”.

Building an audible space had become initial preoccupation for Füsun Onur. She embodied this
idea with her work called Cadence in 1995. This installation took place in Maçka Art Gallery,
which has specific paved surfaces on every wall as well as the floor (Fig.2). This particular site
enabled the artist to become united with the gallery itself. Objects were also selected from the
gallery inventory such as wooden stools and picture hooks. Onur placed a thin string hanging
from the top of the entrance door to prepare the visitors to experience the whole. That tactful sign
guided the audience about what to expect. Similar to a harmonic progression in a piece of music
in which an ordinary listener could also recognize a concluding rhythmic pattern.

Figure 2 - Füsun Onur, Cadence, Maçka Art Gallery, 1995

Another installation entitled Prelude was shown at the same gallery in 2000. It consisted of
traditional household tables in different sizes, Lego blocks, hammers and tulles. Magrit Brehm
noted it as “a visual score for a specific space.” (Brehm, 2007:110). Those objects were place as
in a synaesthetic relationship with a musical rhythmic structure. It was pointed out that the title
Prelude could also refer to the re-opening of the gallery after a two-year break (Pelvanoğlu).
Objects came together to construct the beginning of a whole, like a short introduction preceding a
large-scale composition. The text accompanying to the exhibition also refers to this idea:

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 “If we approach Prelude as a soundless musical composition, the opening motif starts
hesitantly. The smallest units in this piece are Lego blocks, and they are not able to
form a sentence yet. Then a big shape, a table comes along. The little shapes follow it
and imitate it… My intention here was to provide an objective explanation of the
technical aspects. The rest is up to the viewers.” (Quoted from the text accompanying
to the exhibition)

Füsun Onur’s most expansive and complex work Opus II Fantasia (2001) was installed at the
Staatliche Kunsthalle in Baden-Baden for the exhibition ‘From Far Away So. Four Women
Artists from Turkey’ (Fig.3). Magrit Brehm, curator of the exhibition, decided to offer a large
room, which was ideal for Onur to build up a sectional piece expanding over whole floor. The
piece started with knitting needles lying in a single line, then moving side by side and crossing
each other. After golden braids were added to the piece, pedestals joined in a heavy ponderous
manner. Elements were intended to function as variations in a music composition. Their size and
positioning also stimulated a synaesthesic perception for the visitors.

Fig. 3 - Füsun Onur, Opus II – Fantasia, Staatliche Kunsthalle Baden-Baden, 2001

Conclusion
Perception is a combination of impressions and expressions. We organize them simultaneously
using our past experiences, recent expectations and knowledge. Realizing this experience in art
respectively occurs in installation art. Generally, we interpret paintings or sculptures at first
glance. After getting the idea or the concept of the work, the time that we spend standing still or
strolling randomly turns into a recall process of that particular work and after passing to a
contiguous piece in the same place, it has already became a past experience.

In installation art, the elements of the work accompany the viewer in an exact time flow. Objects
are both experienced in memory and in the present. These particular time and space experiences
form specific relationship just as in real life. Whether in a gallery space or not, its interaction with
the site is obvious. Music also has largely to do with space and time; it needs duration to bring
sound into being in a place or an open space.

Interaction between music and visual art has tended to grow in artistic production with respect to
the experiments of Futurists, Dadaist and Fluxus artists. With particular reference to installation
art, representative works by artists such as Milan Knizak, Sarkis, Wolf Vostell and Rebecca Horn
also deal with responses to these developments. Nevertheless, the fundamental difference

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between Onur and those artists is not only in the type of objects that are selected from the musical
realm such as violins, magnetic tape and vinyl records but also how they function. In respect to
Onur, ready-made objects are situated to constitute an audible space in silence or a musical score,
like a graphic notation not on the paper but as if it were in the space itself.

References
Crimp, D. (1993); Redefining Site Specificity; On the Museum’s Ruin; Cambridge, Mass.
Brehm, M. (2007), Füsun Onur For Careful Eyes; Contemporary Series; Yapı Kredi Publications
Greenberg, C. (1965); Modernist Painting; Art in Theory 1900-2000 An Anthology of Changing
Ideas (ed. C.Harrison & P. Wood) (2003); Blackwell Pub.
Miller, Simon-Shaw (2002); Visible Deeds of Music: Art and Music from Wagner to Cage; Yale
University Press
Schafer, Murray R. (1994); Our Sonic Environment and the Soundscape – the Tuning of the
World; Destiny Books
Pelvanoğlu, Burcu; http://www.sanalmuze.org/sergilereng/index05.htm (29.04.2010)
Wagner, Richard (1849); The Art-Work of the Future; Richard Wagner Prose Works Volume 1;
(tr. William Ashton Ellis) (1895); The Wagner Library