Theses and Dissertations at Montana State University (MSU)
Permanent URI for this collectionhttps://scholarworks.montana.edu/handle/1/733
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Item Working progress(Montana State University - Bozeman, College of Arts & Architecture, 1990) Karson, Terence BrooksAs the artist my intention is to immediately make the viewer aware of the space he is in by placing him in direct contact with the work. To make him watch his step. He is in darkness, he is walking on plastic, the radio is making noise, a machine is glowing, clicking, buzzing. There is activity. I want to make the viewer feel, if only for a moment, like an intruder, as if he were somewhere he shouldn't be. It is not a natural setting for the viewer. He is an intruder into the art process. This is the gallery's realm, the curator's realm, the artist's realm. The public is not invited to work in progress. After the initial uneasiness, the viewer is drawn into the space through curiosity. By using familiar things that he can identify with, the newspapers, the plastic, the desk and the things in it, the ladder, the paint, the radio and the gallery space itself, I hope to bring the viewer from a state of slight discomfort to a state of recognition of the various elements and on into a state of response to the images on the screen and on the floor. Once the recognition is established, I hope to bring the viewer into a state of familiarity and active participation, playing a guessing, game with the images he perceives and the space he finds himself in. The knowledge and information brought to the installation by the viewer is critical to the viewer's perception and interpretation of it. In this setting the viewer is brought into the process of art and becomes a part of it. The viewer is no longer an intruder but an essential participant.