Paper #2 Assignment

On the Issue of Site:

For this assignment, please write a three-page paper that makes a specific, interesting claim about the (potentially oppositional or competing) notion(s) of site advanced by one of the following pairs of site-specific artworks. Remember that Kwon breaks up site-specific works into three categories: phenomenological, social/institutional, and discursive. Each site-specific work may exhibit qualities of one or more of these categories, so don’t worry if you think you are seeing characteristics of, e.g., both discursive and phenomenological site-specificity in a single example. You will of course have to figure out what each of these categories means in order to discern the complexities of the notion of sitedness. If you are stuck on this, please feel free to ask for clarification in class or in office hours.

For help in writing a comparative essay, you may consult Chapter 5 of A Short Guide to Writing About Art.

Options:

1. Andy Goldsworthy (any of his “Egg” stone sculptures) v. Constantin Brancusi. Beginning of the World. 1920. (This is a quintessential work of modernist sculpture, and thus adamantly not site specific. If you attack this topic you will have to consider how site-specificity revises the condition of modern sculpture. See Kwon for more details).

2. Guy Debord. The Naked City. (Yup!) v. Christian Philipp Müller. Green Border.

3. Walter DeMaria. Lightning Fields. v. Mark Dion. On Tropical Nature.

4. Mierle Laderman Ukeles. Maintenance v. Andrea Fraser. Museum Highlights: A Gallery Talk

NB: If, after perusing these comparisons and the readings, you discover a different comparison you’d rather do, please OK it with me after class Thursday or via email.

NB #2: Please remember to follow proper manuscript format as outlined in Chapter 13 of A Short Guide to Writing About Art.

NB#3: Please bring 2 extra copies of your paper to class on Tuesday in addition to the one you’re turning in to me.