Enchantment draws on theatrical roots with the audience
being transported into the artists own spectacle. Enchanted spaces are rarely
site-specific as it is all about capturing the viewer entirely. However, some
artists use the area to their advantage, using the windows, ceiling and floor
to represent ‘the rejected world’, ‘sky’, or ‘earth’ respectively.
Enchantment installations are best explained through Kurt
Schwitter’s, Merzbau. Between 1919
and 1937 Schwitter created a ‘large-scale field of imaginary possibilities’, a
pyschological dimension, with every surface covered with various materials. Merzbau was a perfect illustration of
what installation would become, a place where the viewer is transported into a ‘state
of awe...(and) a sense of physical smallness’.
The 1920s was a huge time for installations. Significant contributors
were the Bauhaus, Russian Constructivists and the De Dtijl. Artists showing at
the First International Dada Fair in Berlin presented a model world through
collaborative works through floor-to-ceiling collage as an anti-aesthetic
statement with political messages expressed through the sense of disorder and
anarchy. Duchamp and Dali were crucial figures in enchantment installations using surreal methods to entise the viewer and invite them into a situation where they felt they were 'spying' or 'trespassing'.
In 1955 Disneyland (purely constructed for leisure) was opened and is an example of
enchantment as there is a slight relation to installation through theatrical rides and the full interaction of its users. Disneyland, created by Walt Disney gave participants a chance to completely immerse themselves into a new world, and were given a 'transforming experience' achieved through sensory reactions.
The late 1960’s saw an expansion of paintings (tableaux) and
their intimate worlds were used to create events which were labelled as ‘Happenings’.
Alan Kaprow led these Happenings which were theatrically orientated with the
viewer to ‘perform’. Video Installations were also types of art that have
enchantment characteristics with viewers standing before ‘a dream or nightmare
world’.
Enchantments create an atmosphere where one feels as if they
have entered the mind of the artists seeing through their eyes, their ideas and
their interests.
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