Installation art defies the ability to be circumscribed within a limiting definition. It has been described as being immersive, participatory, experiential, ephemeral, relational and site-specific. But except for the last point, all others could easily be attributed to any relevant work of art. However, once you have experienced an installation, been immersed in it, participated in it and walked into it, through it, on it, over it — done whatever the work requires you, the viewer to do, the meanings and message of the installation unravels as natural offerings, like relationships waiting to be born.

Installations have been known to be as large as 25 metres across and 15 metres high as in Anish Kapoor’s ‘Cloud gate’, nicknamed ‘The bean in Chicago’, or as ephemeral as Felix Torres Gonzales’s pile of candy wrapped in blue paper which was meant to be taken away by visitors and reduced slowly, to signify the loss of weight that Gonzales’s partner was suffering from as a result of a fatal illness. Sound, video, performance are all aspects of installation art.

Our Art Team discusses some Pakistani practitioners of installation art.

Published in Dawn, Sunday Magazine, April 26th, 2015

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