Michael Asher

Michael Asher

‘Asher Noted “Experience is all” ‘
‘Asher’s installations have engaged both individual and collective aspects of spectatorship, providing viewers pathways to self reflective situations where they can be intensely aware of their perceptual and cognitive processes in relation to their social setting as well as to themselves”
These words truly resonate with me; we all come with a uniqueness that will render any interpretation endless. However, as I read on I found this document intriguing, for when I felt comfortable I was hit with the opposite hypotheses.
‘Fried and Morris were not interested in the pre-existing qualities of the spectator...............instead both treated the beholder as a blank slate’ (late 60’s early 70’s). Now I begin to think this sounds very logical too. The pure sensations of Asher’s sensory spaces and his treatment of perception as in; painting one side of the room black and one side white remind me of Brigit Riley who played with the optic nerve continually -pure sensation. Read on;
‘Asher’s 1974 comment that he “(was) not interested in manipulating perception” came at the end of his sensory installation period, and served to distinguish his work ( which he defined as “situational”) from light and space “environments”. The viewing experience with which he wanted to associate his work now aimed to connect the sensory with the social sphere’.
Asher’s ‘Clocktower installation’ New York 1976, left one critic (Nancy Foote) with this observation
‘The art is pushing you around, sending you scrambling for its subliminal effects without having the courtesy to provide adequate cues. Once you make the outside / inside connections, you think you’ve got it. Then it dawns on you that the work is also about the process of making that connection. It comments on awareness itself by forcing you to think about how it ought to affect you’.
This is a very condensed comment as there are 34 pages; I have just chosen bits that appeal to me.