Curatorial Statement

      SiteSpecific is an online exhibition featuring the works of five artists, each of them students or alumni from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, who have chosen the computer monitor as the frame containing their pieces. The quixotic realm of the computer, where immaterial images are represented through a new language of code, has flourished as a new medium for artists over the past decade. Its acceptance by mass culture as a new art form has just begun, as witnessed in the Whitney Biennial's display of net art and the Dia Center's offering of artists' web projects on their site.

      The curators of SiteSpecific were interested in creating an online exhibition for two reasons. The first intention was to promote the work of web-based artists from the school whose works are not meant to be presented in a three dimensional gallery space but rather experienced on a computer screen.

      The second motive was to explore the benefits of a web exhibition and to participate in the critical analysis of net art. Does the internet increase the public's access to the arts by offering exhibitions that can be viewed from the home or office? Can a web exhibition reach a diverse audience or is it only accessible to individuals with a certain level of disposable income or education? How does net art relate to other forms of art such as painting? Can one consider the works presented in SiteSpecific as paintings, with the substitution of oils and acrylics for pixels; the screen as the canvas; or the existence of the works within the frame of the monitor which subsequently creates boundaries for the work? SiteSpecific innately poses such questions to the viewers of this online exhibition in order for them to formulate their own answers.

Lisa Bennett

Heejoo Kim

Allison Kudla

Jason Maxham

Hague Williams