2.10: Alternative Media and Processes
Match the alternative medium or process with its definition:
a. artworks that track the movements and gestures the artist makes during their production
b. artworks that transform the surrounding space in order to become environmental artworks
c. an art action or event that incorporates elements of music, dance, poetry, video, and multimedia
technology
d. a general tendency, as well as an art movement originating in the 1960s, that emphasizes the
ideas behind an artwork over any material production to represent those ideas
e. impromptu art actions, initiated and planned by an artist, the outcome of which is not known in
advance
1. action paintings
2. conceptual art
3. happenings
4. installation
5. performance art
6. Artworks made using alternative media and processes ________.
a. break down categories of traditional artworks
b. break down the traditional boundaries between art and life
c. focus our attention on objects, actions, and events we might otherwise overlook
d. all of the other answers
e. none of the other answers
7. An artwork that consists exclusively of drawings, designs, and plans would best be described as
________.
a. performance art d. a happening
b. conceptual art e. none of the other answers
c. an installation
8. An artwork that consists of cutting off someone’s tie and pouring shampoo on his head would best
be described as ________.
a. performance art d. a readymade
b. conceptual art e. none of the other answers
c. an installation
9. An artwork that consists of a re-created bedroom with videos projected onto the walls would best
be described as ________.
a. performance art
b. conceptual art
c. an installation
d. a readymade
e. none of the other answers
10. An artwork can fit into only one of the following categories: performance art, conceptual art,
installation art.
11. Jackson Pollock is known for:
a. delivering an important speech to Congress on behalf of the art world
b. hanging upside-down from the Brooklyn Bridge for two days
c. splashing, pouring, and dripping paint onto a canvas as he walked around it on the floor
d. his miniature paintings
e. all of the other answers
12. Artworks made using alternative media are best accessed by ________ but often exist only in the
form of ________.
a. direct experience . . . visual documentation or personal accounts
b. the Internet . . . still pictures
c. rooftop . . . postcards
d. videos . . . handwritten letters
e. artworks made using alternative media can never be accessed after they are completed
13. The work of ________ was a direct influence on the conceptual art movement.
a. Albert Einstein d. Michelangelo
b. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart e. the ancient Egyptians
c. Marcel Duchamp
14. What unconventional material does Jean Tinguely use in Homage to New York?
a. firewood d. neon tubing
b. mechanized junk e. toothpaste
c. railroad ties
15. Barbara Kruger’s Untitled (Your Gaze Hits the Side of My Face):
a. employs her background as a graphic designer in its use of text and image
b. references her early career as a baker in the reproduced pastries and confections
c. ignores the rules of good design in order to make an anti-feminist statement
d. agrees with the idea that women artists are not as good as male artists
e. all of the other answers
16. Yoko Ono often utilizes ________ to complete her artworks, such as Wish Tree.
a. mattresses from her favorite hotels
b. instructions for viewers to perform or imagine
c. manifestos of historical art groups
d. the garden tools she inherited from her grandmother
e. none of the other answers
17. Mel Chin’s Fundred Dollar Bill Project is designed to:
a. make the artist rich
b. make the viewer rich
c. raise awareness about and campaign for the treatment of lead-toxic soil
d. clean up the corruption in the political system by eliminating the need for taxes
e. none of the other answers
18. Composer John Cage hoped that his innovative performances would:
a. cause a fire in the tenement building in which he lived
b. make all people hate art
c. inspire people to pay attention to the life (and art) happening all around them
d. separate music and art
e. none of the other answers
19. Composer John Cage’s Theater Piece No. 1 is influential because of:
a. the documentary photos and videos made of the piece
b. the performance itself and discussions of it
c. the objects he used, which are now displayed like relics
d. the movie it was turned into
e. all of the other answers
20. John Cage’s concert for the opening of the National Arts Foundation can be seen as a happening
because:
a. he used lights and props
b. it was a theatrical performance
c. the artist did not fall asleep
d. it expanded the scope of art to include the lived moment
e. this concert was not a happening
21. In Joseph Beuys’s Coyote, I Like America and America Likes Me, the artist:
a. became a shaman and made a curative sand painting of a mythical coyote
b. recorded himself sleeping for three days in the wilderness of the American southwest
c. wrapped himself in felt and lived for five days alone in an art gallery with a coyote
d. projected a video of a coyote on the outside of an art gallery
e. none of the other answers
22. Vito Acconci is the artist who created ________.
a. Following Piece
b. Wish Tree for Washington, D.C.
c. O Superman
d. Coyote, I Like America and America Likes Me
e. all of the other answers
23. As an artist, Marina Abramovic is known for her ________.
a. extroverted personality d. extremely long hair
b. extensive note-taking ability e. traditional approach
c. extreme performance pieces
24. Marina Abramovic’s The Artist Is Present took ________ to complete.
a. nine hours d. forty years
b. twelve days e. it remains unfinished
c. three months
25. Ed Kienholz’s The Beanery includes sculptural replicas of ________.
a. past presidents d. famous artworks
b. nauseating food e. bar inhabitants
c. collectible cars
26. In Mining the Museum Fred Wilson reorganized objects from the collection of the Maryland
Historical Society, essentially taking on the role of a ________ in addition to that of an artist.
a. director d. registrar
b. curator e. shopkeeper
c. conductor
27. Kara Walker’s installation Insurrection! (Our Tools were Rudimentary, Yet We Pressed On)
combines:
a. silhouette drawings and projections
b. Civil War weapons and television sets
c. vintage photographs and shadows of famous trees
d. theater props and umbrellas
e. none of the other answers
28. Over time it becomes clear how an artist’s experiments and discoveries impact later artworks.
Choose either Jackson Pollock, John Cage, or Marcel Duchamp and discuss their influence on the
development of performance and conceptual art. Include specific artworks in your answer.
29. Compare two of the interactive works in this chapter, for example Vito Acconci’s Following Piece
and Yoko Ono’s Wish Tree. Describe the roles of the artist, the viewer, and the environment in
each piece. What did each artist do? What did the viewers do in each case? What does each
artwork look like? What is the point of each artwork? What does this comparison reveal to you
about these artworks that you had not considered before making it?