Essay Example on Shape space and form and how site specificity Plays

A close examination of Jose Pedro Croft's work in relation to shape space and form and how site specificity plays a fundamental role within his work A close examination of Jose Pedro Croft s work in relation to shape space and form and how site specificity plays a fundamental role within his work Jose Pedro Croft principally works within the field of sculpture playing with the idea of balance between the stable and unstable as he states 1 reflecting the transitory nature of the universe Within his exhibition Uncertain Measure Croft highlighted the divisions and framing of space and how the outer environment could change through reflection and refraction His work follows a linear form angular in its shape Croft forms structures that form a dialogue between the object and the landscape Uncertain Measure situated in the Guidecca Venice poses as a site specific sculpture 

The large scale steel structures awaken the senses where the viewers perspective is altered through its materiality on a manmade and natural level through the ever changing landscape Within Site Specific Art performance place and documentation Nick Kaye states it is 2 between the work of art and the places in which its meanings are defined Site specificity might articulate and define itself through properties qualities or meanings produced in specific relationships between an object or event and a position it occupies This definition of site specificity highlights the changing relationship a site specific work of art holds between the object and its chosen site and how the two work together in transcending the objects meaning In relation to Crofts work Uncertain Measure a project conceived alongside architecture intended to highlight the physical dimensions of the social housing project by architect Alvaro Siza situated behind Villa Heriot This measurement of the surrounding buildings allowed Uncertain Measure to echo its surrounding landscape whilst projecting a different landscape through use of glass screens Croft states this location could form3 other possibilities relationship with the lagoon and the grass and the trees the mirrors have so many possibilities and so the material choice for Croft was an important factor for this piece in addition to its location 4 Uncertain Measure Exhibition Venice Biennalle Jose Pedro Croft http www studiointernational com index php jose pedro croft video interview uncertain measure venice biennale 2017 In figure 4 the photograph presents the curatorial decisions in the placement of the sculptures their placement faces the canal as to project its being upon the natural landscape As the day progresses both the natural and the manmade is changed the sky and the colours of the sea develop as the projections reflections change upon the glass 

5 You can see completely different things in the sculptures as you move its a cinematic screen Croft states the sculptures ultimately both create and respond to the precarious environment The exploration of art within a site specific setting transcends the piece itself from one dimensional into a multi dimensional piece an introspective take on the work can change according to its location for instance an piece placed within a white walled gallery in comparison to one placed within a sensory landscape would evoke an entirely different message on the viewer 6 The site it follows is not available as an object for it is not static the site is mobile always in a process of appearance or disappearance available only in a dialectical move which the Non Site prompts and to which it always returns This view of site specificity becomes one based on logic and reason for it is not without the Non Site can one truly see what is present and what is thought of within a site It is a dialectic of place Flam 1996 187 Smithson observes which just goes on permuting itself into this endless doubling so that you have the nonsite functioning as a mirror and the site functioning as a reflection Existence becomes a doubtful thing Lippard and Smithson 1996 193 Through this Non site a logical two dimensional picture is formed whilst the culmination of the site carries a different dimension and message its two dimensional format holds a different message to its three dimensional format 

This definition of a site connotes a sense of fluidity both in its environmental movement but also with its interaction with the piece In the wake of minimalism site specific works within the 1960 s and 1970 s changed the modernist paradigm where works were autonomous and self referential sculptures rather became about the piece itself rather than the site rather ones own creation than adjusting the work to suit the specific site However 7 Site specific work might even assert a proper relationship with its location claiming an original and fixed position associated with what it is This formulation echos the sculptor Richard Sierra s response The removal of his site specific sculpture Tilted Arc of 1981 offering a key definition of site specific work Serra concluded simply and unequivocally that To move the work is to destroy the work Serra 1994 194 To move the site specific work is to replace it to make it something else The site therefore holds a level of importance between the piece the site makes the art