What is Installation Art to The Neon Factory?

Wikipedia defines Installation Art as, "An artistic genre of three-dimensional works that often are site-specific and designed to transform the perception of a space" if we wanted to break the concept down to something more basic. 

Installation art can be so many things, depending on the onlookers. Sometimes the art piece can be functional or completely stationary. Some artists have included performance art into an installation and some require audience participation. They may include audio and visual assistance in presentation or they can be lifeless and still. Temporary or permanent. It's art, so who really needs to hypothesise its purpose or restrict it to rules or restraint?

Tom Sachs on WAR Bike with his Landing Excursion Module (LEM) and Mars Excursion Roving Vehicle (MERV) in “SPACE PROGRAM: MARS,” a joint production between Park Avenue Armory
and Creative Time, at the Park Avenue Armory, 2012.

The Neon Factory believes art is nearly anything you can't help but stare at it. Whatever emotion evokes the prolonged gasping glare may be slightly irrelevant but that one stares is the interesting point. 
What makes it so compelling? 
What part of us finds it so fascinating to look at it and why?

Sometimes diving into our emotions asking 'why' we feel about a certain art piece the way we do is far more intriguing than the art piece itself. 

Janet Cardiff & George Bures Miller,
 The Killing Machine, 2007, 
mixed-media/audio installation, duration 5 minutes.

What would it then be like if the the audience could be part of the art? Can art ever really need participation in order for the art to be actualised? And when does it cross over into performance art?

The Neon Factory wants to explore these questions through live art installation that requires audience participation. It will seek to join actual attendance with social media presence. 

More to come about the art installation... keep those neon eyes fixed.

The Neon Factory's Top Ten Andy Warhol Quotes

Andy Warhol procured Billy Name to decorate the original Factory completely in silver. So it was dubbed the Silver Factory. It would eventually change addresses and interior designing but the essence of what the Factory was supposed to encapsulate remained the same.

The Factory was about creativity and art while the creatives at work had a good time expressing without censorship - as the factory set a scene as to what the sexual revolution of the 60’s in America was all about. Andy Warhol’s art commented on mainstream America while disregarding the conservative social views. So much of his filmed work at the Factory featured nudity, graphic sexuality, drug use, same-sex relations and transgender characters to an epic scale compared to the mainstream media at the time… or even today?

 Here's The Neon Factory's favourite Andy Warhol Quotes:

  

 1.     An artist is somebody who produces things that people don't need to have.

 2.     Everyone needs a fantasy. 

 3.     I'm afraid that if you look at a thing long enough, it loses all of its meaning.

 4.     It would be very glamorous to be reincarnated as a great big ring on Liz Taylor's finger.

 5.     If you're not trying to be real, you don't have to get it right. That's art.

 6.     I always hear myself saying, 'She's a beauty!' or 'He's a beauty!' or 'What a beauty!' but I never know what I'm talking about. 

 7.     I always like to see if the art across the street is better than mine.

 8.     Voyeurism is a director's job description. It's an artist's, too. 

 9.     Art? That's a man's name.

 10. “Don't think about making art, just get it done. Let everyone else decide if it's good or bad, whether they love it or hate it. While they are deciding, make even more art.”

What is the Neon Factor

It was The Factory in the early 60's that was followed by Studio 54 in the 70's and the Club Kids of the 80's that inspired eons of creative flare for many parties to follow. And in true opulence and decadence The Neon Factory seeks to reinvent the taste for art and the desire to party with a uniquely Cape Tonian flair.

Live art installation with audience participation for a six-piece exploration of art and soiree based in reality but living through social media. 

Expect sexual taboos, objectification of the best kind, gender screwing, leather strapping, lace wearing and decadence. 

The flesh on display will keep you intrigued and you'll ultimately become a part of the art, all the while our resident DJ’s will up the tempo bringing you the best in underground music from across the globe.

This exquisite event will take place on the first Thursday of every month, coinciding with Cape Town’s monthly celebration of art and music, the perfect day for The Neon Factory to come to life.

Each month there will be a unique theme, starting with our “Glamour” Party on Thursday 1st September. In order to bring you these exclusive showpiece events, we’ve partnered with Cape Town’s premier nightclub – ERA. Look out for our different take on this amazing venue as we transform it into the Neon Factory …