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Installation Art

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Artwork consisting of objects arranged so as to create an environment into which the viewer can enter, or imagine entering, somewhat as an actor enters a stage set, or to alter the viewer's perception of space. An art installation may be as simple as a few rocks or sticks placed in a circle on the floor of a gallery, intending to evoke a campfire or a sacred grove, or as complex as Chris Burden's 1986 Exposing the Foundations of the Museum, in which the artist removed the concrete floor of the newly created Geffen Contemporary at MOCA in Los Angeles, inviting viewers to walk down rickety steps into what resembled an archeological dig. Installation art is often created or modified for a specific site, incorporating elements of the room or building in which it is housed. Installation artworks vary greatly, using natural and human-made materials for their symbolic and metaphoric, as well as visual and tactile, properties.

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Correspondence to Deborah Sokolove Ph.D. .

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© 2013 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht

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Sokolove, D. (2013). Installation Art. In: Runehov, A.L.C., Oviedo, L. (eds) Encyclopedia of Sciences and Religions. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4020-8265-8_200368

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4020-8265-8_200368

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-4020-8264-1

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-4020-8265-8

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