Instillation Art

During my first couple of weeks at university I attended a lecture given by Jonathan Clarkson regarding the concept of ‘Instillation Art’. This helped me to widen my knowledge and understanding into what instillation art is and how I could incorporate it into interior design. As defined by the Tate “Instillation art is used to describe large scale, mixed media constructions, often designed for a specific place or for a temporary period of time”, this implies that the use of instillation art which embodies a space causes the spectator to amerce themselves within the room and walk round it to fully absorb the environment portrayed. Unlike sculpture which involves looking at individual displays of art work, instillation art produces an experience which encompasses the individual causing them to solely focus on their surroundings.

Instillation art is an alternative name for ‘environments’, an environment is a place which involves interaction. Interaction is very important within instillation art as the individual needs to engage with the work in order to understand its meaning, this suggests that most instillation art takes up an entire space. I was inspired by the concept of instillation art during this lecture and it made me more aware of the different ways that designers can create experience within a space. In addition, I was intrigued by the different ways people view the art and how the majority of people will come to their own subjective conclusion regarding the meaning of the instillation. In my future projects I would like to experiment more with instillation as I am incredibly interested in what sort of behaviour the space will allow or prohibit from the spectator. Therefore, researching into this concept further may help me to develop as an interior designer as I am more aware of how spaces can become immersive for individuals.

Richard Serra, Ramble, 2014