separated at birth: the illusion of space

David North

Doorway to Imagination (2020)

built by David North in his backyard (photo by David North)

https://www.npr.org/2020/06/05/871023673/2-uncles-and-a-doorway-to-imagination-spread-love-on-social-media

Robert Gober

site-specific installation (1992)

Dia Chelsea, New York City

(photo by Bill Jacobson Studio, New York)

https://www.diaart.org/exhibition/exhibitions-projects/robert-gober-exhibition

The title of the Gober piece reminds me of a subject cataloging conundrum from some years ago. LCSH had long had the term "Installations (Art)" for installation works, with the scope note:

• Here are entered works on a type of art form in which an entire exhibition space is transformed into a three-dimensional work of art by the arrangement of objects and materials within the space.

They added "Site-specific installations (Art)" in 2001 with the scope note:

• Here are entered works on art installations created for a specific site that use elements of the site as an integral part of the work of art and are intended to be displayed and viewed only at that site.

I tried to convince the subject specialists at LC that the new heading was not valuable. It might have literary warrant and one might take issue with either scope note. More important, trying to split "Site-specific installations" from plain old "Installations" seemed likely to lead a cataloger to use the words in the resource being cataloged rather than being able to make an objective determination concerning site specificity.

I looked at the LC record for the 1992 Dia exhibition at which the site-specific installation was shown. The record has "Installations (Art) -- United States -- Exhibitions" because it predates the establishment of "Site-specific installations (Art)." I am quite sure that I've seen the Gober work included in other exhibitions. There are internet pictures of the work at Glenstone.

Even though I didn't want the new subject heading, I was delighted to get a t-shirt that said "site-specific installation" at the Whitney.