Sculpture Studio

Rachael Lashof

Project 3- Site and Installation
ARTIST RESEARCH

DAMIEN HIRST

Damien Hirst is a British artist interested mainly in installation. His works examine irony, specifically in the processes of life and death. He is most famous for his installation pieces of tanks of formaldehyde containing dead animals. To me, Hirst’s work shows an artistic approach to things that we normally think of as scientific. This gives his installations an ironic, strange tone not found in many artists’ work. I like that although Hirst is presenting these animals and pill bottles artistically, he is also keeping some of their original context. In this way, he is appropriating the scientific to the artistic world. I appreciate Hirst’s understanding of the scientific and his use of their appropriation to support his ironic and strange tone implying questions of life and death. The piece of the left, The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living (1991), is a shark in a tank of formaldehyde. The piece at right, Isolated Elements Swimming in the Same Direction for the Purposes of Understanding (1991), is another installation of animals in formaldehyde tanks. Finally, the piece below, Pharmacy, is an installation of pill bottles

KIRA LYNN HARRIS

Kira Lynn Harris, who is currently a visiting artist here at St. Mary’s College of Maryland is very interested in space and light. This is seen through both her site specific installations and her conceptual photographs. Her interest in light and space as well as in issues of culture, race, and gender are visualized in installations and photographs. Her installation work often involves the use of silver Mylar. I like her installation work in particular because she is able to use the space and seemingly create light from darkness. The strange qualities of the Mylar along with the minimalist approach make the spaces she chooses seem as if there is something in nothing. In a way, it seems as if the light, which we all know as not a physical element, actually does become a physical element. In this way, Kira’s work really exemplifies installation and site specific work because she is taking nothing or very little and making it something. She is creating a space for us to look at. The installation from which the photograph below was taken, for example, is of a stair-like brick section in an old spice plant. Harris laid Mylar over these steps so it looked like a river flowing down. As one would assume, at night time these steps are not visible through the dark, unlighted plant. However, with the Mylar laid there, even at night the space is visible, creating a visual space that wasn’t there before.