1. The mirror & the Imagined
space
Exploring the artworks of artists
Robert Smithson
and
Matt Collishaw
1
2. "Reflecting the site in a physical way"
Chalk Mirror Displacement
constructed at the Oxted chalkpit
quarry, Surrey, and photographed by
the artist 1969
Chalk and Mirror Displacement
1969
http://www.robertsmithson.com
2
3. An evocative vision
beauty & brutality reflected
•
Matt Collishaw ; Retrospectre, instalation
http://old.bfi.org.uk/sightandsoun
d/exclusive/retrospectre.php
3
4. Physicality and Reflection
•
"I'm using a mirror because
the mirror in a sense is both
the physical mirror and the
reflection: the mirror as a
concept and abstraction; then
the mirror as a fact within the
mirror of the concept. So
that's a departure from the
other kind of
contained, scattering idea.
But still the bi-polar unity
between the two places is
kept. Here the site/non-site
becomes encompassed by
mirror as a conceptmirroring, the mirror being a
dialectic.“
•
Quote excerpted from ROBERT SMITHSON: THE COLLECTED
WRITINGS, 2nd Edition, edited by Jack Flam,
http://www.robertsmithson.com
4
5. Topics to explore
The illusion of space and depth
The mirror, reflection & projection
creating a dialogue with the past and
present
Exploring the concept of site/non site
5
6. Recourses
Berger. J (1972) Ways of Seeing. Penguin Books
Harrison,C Wood,P Art In Theory 1900-2000 Blackwell publishing
D'ALLEVA, A. (2006). How to write art history. London, Laurence King Pub.
http://www.tate.org.uk/context-comment/articles/nancy-holt-and-robert-smithson
-england-1969
Review by Donald Goddard (accessed)Monday, April 2013,09:41 AM
http://www.newyorkartworld.com/reviews/smithson.html
http://openfileblog.blogspot.co.uk/2011/06/michel-foucault-on-heterotopias.html
http://www.blainsouthern.com/artists/mat-collishaw
http://www.freud.org.uk
6
Hinweis der Redaktion
I shall be exploring works of the artists above examining the different ways in which both artists use the mirror as medium and concept. The site/non site in Smithson’s work and the two-way mirror/ projections in Collishaw’s and how they both create an imagined space.
Robert Smithson was commissioned by Institute of Contemporary Art, London 1969 for an exhibition titled ( When Attitudes Become Form). by The work on the left has been created outside where the artist had journeyed to a quarry in Sussex England to find a site. The work is created and photographed. The materials are dismantled and painstakingly removed and carried from the site. In this case the artist not only used the materials he also recreated design in the gallery space. This is an example of what Smithson calls a site and non –site. http://www.tate.org.uk/context-comment/articles/nancy-holt-and-robert-smithson-england-1969
Matt Collishaw’sretrospectre is an installation created using a selection of wooden window/ door frames and alter pieces assembled together creating a huge wooden collage of fames holding within them two-way mirrors and glass. A collection of film pieces have been cut and pasted together then projected onto the mirrors. http://old.bfi.org.uk/sightandsound/exclusive/retrospectre.php
