Scatter art is the throw-pillow approach to Installation art. The artists arrange objects (often of the found variety) in a seemingly random fashion, or they randomly toss objects in a creative act of chance. Whatever the process, the result shares the... [more]
Scatter art is the throw-pillow approach to Installation art. The artists arrange objects (often of the found variety) in a seemingly random fashion, or they randomly toss objects in a creative act of chance. Whatever the process, the result shares the aesthetic of wind-blown city streets: the detritus of consumer society gathers like so many food wrappers in a concrete park (sans the hunched chess players).
Process artists such as Eva Hesse and Richard Serra were the first to use elements of Scatter art. Serra, for instance, threw molten metal around his studio in a demonstration of art's mutability. Contemporary artists such as Jessica Stockholder create abstract, three-dimensional compositions by juxtaposing organic and industrial materials. Stockholder describes the aesthetic behind her recent Mattress Factory installation: "Mixing food with the bed" is like mixing concrete with hair or having a bathtub mixed with a brick wall, or like making a painting over top of stuff out in the middle of the room where the sculpture is. This piece combines real stuff in a peculiar fashion. The stuff is the support for the painting; but the real elements and the painted elements are of equal value and are measured against one another."
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