Who Is to Be Concerned…

…What Is to Be Considered?

installation \ 2010
drywall, wood, fasteners \ dimension approx. 16 x 16 x 2′

Developed during an exchange of visits between an installation art studio course at the School for the Contemporary Arts, Simon Fraser University and TRIUMF, Canada’s National Research Laboratory for Particle and Nuclear Physics, Who Is to Be Concerned, What Is to Be Considered? engages questions around representation in science and art. The sociologist Bruno Latour warns of the distinction between canonized or ‘ready-made’ science and the socially embedded but imperceptible processes that characterize the development of new scientific theories. In the fine arts, there is often a similar gap between an artwork exhibited in a gallery space, and the artistic process behind its production. Moreover, Latour distinguishes three forms of representation: (1) political: who is to be concerned?; (2) scientific: what is to be considered?; and (3) artistic: how do we represent the spaces where people discuss their matters of concern?

An engagement with these ideas of representing content and process, the installation comprises a 1:6 scale maquette of the SFU Visual Art Studios, which envelopes a structural column in its actual location. Through providing the visitors with a “God’s eye view” of the studio space, the installation seeks to provide a symbolic entry into—and in turn critically reflect on—the physical and conceptual spaces of artistic process.