Installation_Art

The definition of installation art is an artist that works three dimensional art pieces intended to alter the perception of space. Community art is a type of art that can work with any genre, but is created or based in the community setting, location or place. This essay will discuss the installation artworks of the British artist Luke Jerram. The particular installation chosen is known as “Just Sometimes”and was created as a temporary display for the Rotterdam Witte De With Festival in the Netherlands. This festival was held for three days in September 2010. Luke Jerram is an international artist with various pieces of art placed throughout the world. His works range from sculptures and live art to installations incorporating light, sound, gravity of the moon and the interpretation of dreams. Since 1997, when his professional career began his artworks are said to have been quite extraordinary, and imaginative names have been given to his more popular pieces. For instance, his artwork of “Play Me, I’m Yours” began in 2008. This artwork consisted of street pianos being placed variously throughout the great cities of the world and people playing them for free. Another artwork widely known is the “Sky Orchestra” which occurred in Sydney. The project included seven hot air balloons released into the sky at dawn. The aim of the artwork was for the public to have sculptural experience or to sculpt their dreams on the edge of sleep. Each of the balloons played different elements of music creating a huge audio landscape. The mediums he uses are clear glass, concrete and items you would use everyday around the house or community, such as umbrellas and notebooks. Luke Jerram’s artworks are about things that he is passionate about. Also the fact that he is colour blind and has an interest in science is reflected and mirrored in his artworks. For the three day festival in Rotterdam, fifteen ideas were presented to the council but out of those they chose “Just Sometimes”. This artwork included approximately 1000 yellow and orange umbrellas turned upside-down, transformed by their reflection and quantity in the water. The artwork stretched for over 300 metres of stream, some said they looked like “floating swans on the canal and sometimes one or two could be found trying to escape upstream”. The artwork was intended to connect the streets and waterways together, at the end of the festival the umbrellas were given out to passing strangers, therefore connecting them together. The name of the artwork was given to it by a quote that Luke Jerram said himself, “Like a bunch of flowers presented as a gift or fireworks on an autumn night, maybe “just sometimes” it’s okay to create something that is simply beautiful and makes the public smile”. It is uncertain how long construction took but the purpose was to create an attraction for the festival in Rotterdam. Also just simply to make people happy. Luke Jerram’s values and beliefs all revolve around roughly the same thing, these are that if you are really passionate about something, just go for it. In various interviews he has said different things about how his imagination expanded when he started doing art projects. His influences from other artists include: Christo; Mona Hatoum; and James Turrel. Furthermore, the whole ideas of his artworks were to make people happy, more imaginative and to express this in meaningful ways, because “Just Sometimes it’s okay to create something simply beautiful and makes the public smile.”