| Art that focuses on process does not deal with planning for the end presentation as much as it focuses on the creation or the materials that are involved in production of art. Art process can include many aspects of a work. The physical making of the art can be emphasized by showing the physical action of production. The art can also become an exploration of the material that it is composed of. The material is the art, and art can explore its own makeup. In other process arts, the art is simply a result of some kind of process or action. This could be something as simple as scratch on a surface or maybe the residues left behind after some kind of reaction.
Process oriented art can not usually be defined by the end result. The back-story to a piece can often be the art itself. For example, if an artist labors for years slowly chipping away at a block so that they end up with a pile of dust, the dust pile is meaningless without the knowledge of how it came to be. You can look at the pile of dust and notice its color or where it is, and maybe the shape and form it creates as it sits in its environment. All these things are evident, but unless you know the story, the process is something of a mystery. That can be part of the piece as well. The mystery of the process could very well be an intriguing theme for a perceptive audience. Otherwise, artist statements can become critical to the meaning of their work.
When talking about foregrounding, I think of someone emphasizing the construction of the art. For example, if someone is trying to create a seamless reproduction to trick the audience into thinking they are looking at something that they are not, that is illusion. They are hiding the process, it is not important to the work. In fact it takes away from the goal of illusion. Process reveals the background; it is evidence of origins and labor. So if you foreground process, you reveal the way the art came to be. An artist may not only reveal the marks or the bits of lingering creation, but they might make their art a testament to their own labor or the materials used. This can make the meaning much more personal in numerous cases. The work becomes much more about itself and its maker than other art which focuses on external or remote meaning. The process art is deeply concerned with its own local physical being, and the audience is confronted by the actuality of the art.
Because all art involves process, it can be argued that all art is process art. To me, what makes art about process is all in how the end presentation is handled. If the goal is to make the audience think of something else while they contemplate a physical piece of artwork, then the art is representational in some way. This could even refer to abstract art which attempts to evoke emotion or vague ideas. If the art is trying to make you think about something else besides the art itself, then it is less likely to be process art. Of course process art makes us think of other things, but I don’t think that is the goal. There is much more of a focus on the maker and the making. These two grounded aspects of the art making process are intimately involved in the end result. The end result is simply that, a result. It is the leftover from the process oriented art.
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