about landscape, in landscape?

[slintfan]

I have recently been having a bit of trouble with the format that I use to deal with landscape in my work. I have been thinking lately that making work about the scape in which we dwell seems to carry itself better indoors. I have been finding that when I objectify or make allusion to artifice up front, by concentrating on presentation of my work as sculpture, then it can be more like an exchange where I am generalizing and aesthetisizing my landscapes. On the contrary, I have noticed that the same type of work seems to be too competitive or gets obliterated by the natural scape when it is outside. Even when the scale and human relationship issues of outdoor work are dealt with, there is still a incompatability that occurs for me. The work I am doing is directly referencing the local landscape, and may just be to close to itself, but it really lives better when it is within the gallery institution. My work is about being art and it seems to function better because of that inside something.
Have any of you noticed similar oddities about working outside the gallery vs. inside?

[davem]

slintfan

I think I know what you mean.


I've experienced creating a piece with reference to specific criteria in mind such as landscape, only to discover that the work has a completely new personality when taken out of context and given a different environment to rest in.

I seek-out this "juxtaposition". The possibilities for establishing relationships between material, and spatial qualities are ultimately endless.

[fritchie]

Slintfan - I know we have different views on figuration, but over the last 2 - 3 years I have been presenting the human form as landscape or “bodyscape”. I think this bears on your point, but maybe from the opposite direction. I take the liberty of repeating here one of my earlier posted images to show my direction.

These are studies of partial human forms from imagination and somewhat abstracted. Landscape or “bodyscape” seemed a natural title.

[JHoughton]

I would have to say the majority of my work was created with the intention that it would be presented in one way or another in the white cube environment that is a gallery. I would like to believe that my work would be just as strong in the middle of a cornfield or a Wal-mart parking lot, but I still believe realistically in that format they would have to be documented photographically and then placed back in the white cube for presentation yet again with the photographs. When outdoor sculptures are presented it is often in a very controlled environment (like a scuplture park). I find it very interesting to present uncoventional "art works" in the gallery and make people ask the fundamental question is it art just because its here?