Contemporary Installation Artist About my work:  "Reconfiguration"   Using woodcut, the print, etchings, and mixed media, I produce installations that reconfigure nature; the shifting of land, the memory of tree, and the essence of the life cycle. Using references from hornet's nests, trees, bones, and scenery from national parks, I incorporate ideas of landmasses shifting in times of movement or stress. All elements associated with tree are implied or stated; including insects, snake, and the color of rosin and asphaltum with the inclusion of tree as hybrid.  November 2007, Alexandra Davis Installation art uses sculptural materials and other media to modify the way we experience a particular space. Installation art is not necessarily confined to gallery spaces and can be any material intervention in everyday public or private spaces. Installation art incorporates almost any media to create an experience in a particular environment. Materials used in contemporary installation art range from everyday and natural materials to new media such as video, sound, performance, computers and the internet. Some installations are site-specific in that they are designed to only exist in the space for which they were created. History This genre of contemporary art came to prominence in the 1970s. Many trace the roots of this form of art to earlier artists such as Marcel Duchamp and his use of the readymade or to Kurt Schwitters' Merz art objects, rather than more traditional craft based sculpture. The intention of the artist is paramount in much later installation art whose roots lie in the conceptual art of the 1960s. This again is a departure from traditional sculpture which places its focus on form. Early non-Western installation art includes events staged by the Gutai group in Japan starting in 1954, which influenced American installation pioneers like Allan Kaprow.