Filled-Space Installations: Enchantments

Mark Lawrence Rosenthal states, “Like a large cathedral, an installation can transport its viewer into a state of awe, providing also a sense of physical smallness vis-à-vis the all-consuming vision of the installation’s artist.” Some forms of transformation may occur whereby the visitor is even converted, as it were, to the vision of the creator. This philosophy spilled into Kurt Schwitter’s innovative ideals of enchantment-type installations in the twentieth century through his piece ‘Merzbau.’ Schwitters expresses his total “contemplative immersion of the self in art” in this work. The immersive walk-through environment encompassed his whole apartment where he covered its surroundings with limitless objects that he had obtained and collected.

Enchanted spaces are commonly made distinctly separate and thus rarely relate to the architectural setting in which they are installed. As Kabakov suggests, “windows are an anathema, for they reveal the rejected world; if the ceiling or floor is emphasized, each will likely suggest the sky or the earth.”

During the 1920’s installation was approached with diverse experimentation. Dada, Bauhaus, Russian Constructivism and Dutch De Stijl all developed and incorporated installations of interchange. This was notably developed by Marcel Duchamp and Salvador Dali.  Duchamp’s work ‘1200 Bags of Coal’ (1938) and ‘Etant donnes’ (1946-66) disorders and encapsulates gallery space. By disregarding the norms of exhibiting art it provides a dislocating engagement within the viewers, enticing observers to be encapsulated within Duchamp’s creations. Dali’s ‘Le Taxi Pluvieux’ (1938) and ‘Dream of Venus’ (1939) created environments in which above all, the surreal, bewitching, perplexing, or even frightening were emphasized yet included the environment in where it was situated.

Enchantment was taken to a new level in Walt Disney’s Disneyland (1995). Disney creates a world in which “you leave today and enter the world of yesterday, tomorrow and fantasy.” It has been classified as scandalous to put ‘Disneyland’ into an art context. The enchantment was created purely for leisure purposes it suggests that a total environment of sensory pleasures might be possible in a ‘leisure situation.’ “A full-body escape from reality, in which someone else’s aura and world view dominate the viewer’s entire perceptual field, is the goal.” These expectations of entertainment within art led to the expansion of the tableaux formation as well as the creation of live, performative ‘happenings’ led by artists such as Alan Kaprow. These elements of enchantments emphasise the spectacle of the viewers engagement and participation to enrich the intentions of the artist’s created world.

This continues to a more diverse use of tableaux formation with elements of a walk-in environment creating a worldly aura, theatrical in the most fundamental sense. In close relation, video installations follow the model of the enchantment, captivating the viewer in a different realm. The continuation of a created world is developed by IIya Kabakov, in his application of doors and walls in order to disconnect the space from the gallery. In his wall drawings, Johnathan Brofosky,  intended to erase any sense of architecture. This vision also captivated contemporary video installation artists that also capture the essence of a created world.

Enchantments allow artists to captivate observers within their crafted environments. It detaches viewers from the physical space, enabling them to experience the artists full intentions of the created world.