Possible worlds: Utopian place-making in installation art

This thesis examines how acts of place-making in contemporary installation art create worlds that engage with, or prompt reflection on utopias. Installation artists have exploited the art installation as an experimental, but real physical space to engage imaginatively with both possible and otherworldly utopian ideas. I show how works created between the 1990s and the present by ten artists from Europe and the USA stage the paradox of place and non-place to explore new conceptions of utopia.

The term ‘utopia’ has recently become popular in practices of, and discussions about, art making. There has been little critical clarity or consensus, however, on what this implies for the creation of physical places or the types of social interactions that utopian artworks seek to generate. Throughout this study, I clarify the social relationships that are encouraged in installation artworks by examining parallels with literary utopias from Plato and Thomas More to contemporary fiction and contemporary utopian theorists Moylan, Ruth Levitas, Lisa Garforth and others. I disambiguate the term ‘utopia’ in installation art and identify recent trends in the treatment of this theme.