Site Specific Art

Each Michael Singer Studio project is considered individually and crafted to address and interact with the site’s specific program, environmental systems and social context. Michael Singer, along with the Studio’s planners and designers, study each site and explore specific opportunities to reveal a site’s full potential. Many projects have a regenerative or ecological component, cleansing water on-site for instance. Some projects are more about revealing a site’s history or context. Other projects may simply respond to the light in a given location or utilize a native plant palette to foster a specific habitat for wildlife. Site specific artwork can take many forms.

The Studio rejects the notion of pre-fabricated artwork that is purchased and installed at any given location, often coined as ‘plop art’. Rather, the Studio embraces a place-based model to create site specific art and environmental artwork that responds to the characteristics of the site to reveal its unique qualities. With the notable exception of gallery pieces, the Studio does not produce artwork for purchase in public spaces; every object fabricated in the Studio is created for a specific project and site. Some of Michael Singer’s indoor or outdoor sculptures can be purchased for in-situ placement but this typically involves a commission and often involves the creation of a new work, specific to its future placement.

Each piece created by Michael Singer is hand crafted with expert craftsmanship and detailing. Singer’s team of craftsmen has been working with the Studio for decades. The Studio engages a select group of stone, metal, concrete and wood suppliers who know Michael Singer’s fabrication processes and expectations intimately. The majority of the hand crafted works and details are created at the Southern Vermont Studio, where Michael Singer has been producing work for over 3 decades. Due to the limited number of works created by the Studio each year, the varying nature of the natural materials, as well as the site specificity of the art work created, each piece is a unique creation.