When I initially think about art as entertainment, I don’t imagine art in a gallery but rather music or television shows. Though I was recently exposed to a different form of art as entertainment, that being the work of Carsten Holler. Holler’s work brought a new meaning to the phrase “art as entertainment” for me with pieces such as Test Site and Amusement Park, both of which are interactive installations visitors can both view and experience if they so choose. For this reason, “the work must not be understood as an object but as a platform of interaction”. Thus, Holler’s intention to change the viewers’ perception of both his art and the world surrounding them is clear. For example, Holler’s piece Test Site, installed at Tate Modern in
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First appearing at the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Arts, Amusement Park is an installation of five different iconic childhood amusement park rides such as “a Gravitron, bumper cars, a Twister and more”. Uniquely, Holler adds to the recognizable rides by manipulating everything from their speed and direction to their music and lights being sure to avoid any specific pattern, especially that of the traditional ride, as well as placing a large mirror wall at the end of the space to reflect the entire Amusement Park causing the work to be even more enticing. In fact, several of the rides were moving at such slow rates, looking at a glance you would not notice movement at all. For instance, one viewer confessed, “I actually didn’t even NOTICE that they were moving… until someone pointed out to me that all except the bumper cars WERE moving”. This forces viewers to pay closer attention and take additional time with each ride individually. Additionally, Holler hopes to continue “challenging his viewers ' assumptions” with “installations and sculptures that deliberately induce doubt and confusion” much like the experience of Test Site. Knowing this, viewers now see these once considered childlike amusement rides from a different perspective and in doing so they can discover the underlying meaning of this installation which it to force people to think about ordinary objects differently …show more content…
Though, at the same time, Holler does this to show us how fast paced and forever changing the society we live in is to make us realize it is time to slow down and truly think about what we are doing and accomplishing. Not only this, but I think he also wants to set people up to be more open minded in a society full of the narrow minded. In doing this, our society would become more close knit solely by being able to understand that everyone interprets things differently but that doesn’t mean their interpretation is
First appearing at the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Arts, Amusement Park is an installation of five different iconic childhood amusement park rides such as “a Gravitron, bumper cars, a Twister and more”. Uniquely, Holler adds to the recognizable rides by manipulating everything from their speed and direction to their music and lights being sure to avoid any specific pattern, especially that of the traditional ride, as well as placing a large mirror wall at the end of the space to reflect the entire Amusement Park causing the work to be even more enticing. In fact, several of the rides were moving at such slow rates, looking at a glance you would not notice movement at all. For instance, one viewer confessed, “I actually didn’t even NOTICE that they were moving… until someone pointed out to me that all except the bumper cars WERE moving”. This forces viewers to pay closer attention and take additional time with each ride individually. Additionally, Holler hopes to continue “challenging his viewers ' assumptions” with “installations and sculptures that deliberately induce doubt and confusion” much like the experience of Test Site. Knowing this, viewers now see these once considered childlike amusement rides from a different perspective and in doing so they can discover the underlying meaning of this installation which it to force people to think about ordinary objects differently …show more content…
Though, at the same time, Holler does this to show us how fast paced and forever changing the society we live in is to make us realize it is time to slow down and truly think about what we are doing and accomplishing. Not only this, but I think he also wants to set people up to be more open minded in a society full of the narrow minded. In doing this, our society would become more close knit solely by being able to understand that everyone interprets things differently but that doesn’t mean their interpretation is