The term
public art properly refers to works of
art in any
media
that has been planned and executed with the specific intention of
being sited or staged in the
physical public domain, usually outside
and accessible to all. The term is especially significant within
the art world, amongst curators, commissioning bodies and
practitioners of public art, to whom it signifies a particular
working practice, often with implications of
site specificity, community involvement
and collaboration. The term is sometimes also applied to include
any art which is exhibited in a
public
space including publicly accessible buildings.
The scope of public art
Monuments, memorials and civic
statuary are perhaps the oldest and most obvious
form of officially sanctioned public art, although it could be said
that
architectural detail and
even
architecture itself is more
widespread and fulfills the definition of public art. Increasingly
most aspects of the built environment are seen as legitimate
candidates for consideration as, or location for, public art,
including,
street furniture,
lighting and
graffiti. Public art is not confined to physical
objects;
dance,
procession,
street
theatre even poetry have proponents that specialize in public
art.
Sculpture intended as public art is often constructed of durable,
easily cared-for material, to avoid the worst effects of the
elements and
vandalism; however, many
works are intended to have only a temporary existence and are made
of more
ephemeral materials.
Permanent works are
sometimes integrated with architecture
and landscaping in the creation or
renovation of buildings and sites,an especially important example
being the programme developed in the new city of Milton Keynes
, England.
Some artists working in this discipline use the freedom afforded by
an outdoor site to create very large works that would be unfeasible
in a gallery, for instance
Richard
Long's three week walk, entitled "The Path Is the Place in the
Line". Amongst the works of the last thirty years that have met
greatest critical and popular acclaim are pieces by
Christo,
Robert Smithson,
Andy Goldsworthy, and
Anthony Gormley where the artwork reacts to
or incorporates its environment.
Artists making Public art range from the greatest masters such as
Michelangelo,
Pablo Picasso, and
Joan Miró, to those who specialize in public
art such as
Claes Oldenburg and
Pierre Granche, to anonymous artists
who make surreptitious interventions.
Interactive public art
Some forms of public art are designed to encourage audience
participation in a hands-on way. Examples include public art
installed at hands-on science museums such as the main
architectural centerpiece out in front of the Ontario Science
Centre. This permanently installed artwork is a fountain that is
also a musical instrument (
hydraulophone) that members of the public can
play at any time of the day or night. Members of the public
interact with the work by blocking water jets to force water
through various sound-producing mechanisms inside the
sculpture.
Federation
Bells in Birrarung
Marr
, Melbourne
is also public art which works as a musical
instrument.
Percent for art
Public art is usually installed with the authorization and
collaboration of the government or company that owns or administers
the space. Some governments actively encourage the creation of
public art, for example, budgeting for artworks in new buildings by
implementing a
Percent for Art
policy. 1% of the construction cost for art is a standard, but the
amount varies widely from place to place. Administration and
maintenance costs are sometimes withdrawn before the money is
distributed for art (City of Los Angeles for example). Many locales
have "general funds" that fund temporary programs and performances
of a cultural nature rather than insisting on project-related
commissions. The majority of European countries, Australia and many
cities and states in the USA, have percent for art programs. This
requirement is implemented in a variety of ways.
The government of
Quebec
requires that the budget for all new publicly
funded buildings set aside 1% for artwork. New York City
has a law that requires that no less than 1% of the
first twenty million dollars, plus no less than one half of 1% of
the amount exceeding twenty million dollars be allocated for art
work in any public building that is owned by the city. The
maximum allocation for any commission in New York is
$400,000.
In
contrast, the city of Toronto
requires
that 1% all of construction costs be set aside for public art, with
no set upper limit (although in some circumstances, the
municipality and the developer might negotiate a maximum
amount). In the United Kingdom percent for art is
discretionary for local authorities, who implement it under the
broader terms of a
section 106
agreement otherwise known as 'planning gain', in practice it is
negotiable, and seldom ever reaches a full 1%, where it is
implemented at all. A percent for art scheme exists in Ireland and
is widely implemented by many local authorities.
Arts Queensland, Australia supports a new policy (2008) for 'art +
place' with a budget provided by state government and a curatorial
advisory committee. It replaces the previous 'art built-in'
2005–2007.
Public art and politics
Public art has often been used for political ends. The most extreme
and widely discussed manifestations of this remain the use of art
as
propaganda within
totalitarian regimes coupled with
simultaneous suppression of dissent.
The approach to art
seen in Stalin's Soviet Union
and Mao's Cultural Revolution in China
stand as representative.
In more open societies artists often find public art useful in
promoting their ideas or establishing a
censorship-free means of contact with viewers.
The art may be intentionally ephemeral, as in the case of temporary
installations and performance pieces. Such art has a spontaneous
quality. It is characteristically displayed in urban environments
without the consent of authorities. In time, though, some art of
this kind achieves official recognition. Examples include
situations in which the line between
graffiti and "
guerilla"
public art is blurred, such as the art of
John Fekner placed on billboards, the early
works of
Keith Haring (executed without
permission in advertising poster holders in the
New York City Subway) and the current
work of
Banksy.
The Northern Irish murals and those in
Los
Angeles
were often responses to periods of conflict.
The art provided an effective means of communication both within
and beyond a distressed group within the larger society. In the
long run the work proved useful in establishing dialogue and
helping to bridge the social rifts that fuelled the original
conflicts.
Controversies
Public art sometimes proves controversial. A number of factors
contribute to this: the desire of the artist to provoke; the
diverse nature of the viewing public, with widely varying degrees
of familiarity with art and its syntax; issues of appropriates uses
of public funds, spaces, and resources; issues of public safety and
civic oversight.
- Richard Serra's minimalist piece
Tilted Arc was removed from a
New York City plaza in 1989 after office workers complained their
work routine was disrupted by the piece. A public court hearing
ruled against continued display of the work.
- House, a large 1993–94 work by Rachel Whiteread in East London, was
destroyed by the local council after a few months. In this case the
artist and her agent had only secured temporary permission for the
work.
- Pierre Vivant's Traffic
Light tree
(1998) near Canary Wharf, also in East London,
caused some confusion from motorists when first constructed, some
of whom believed them to be real traffic signals. However,
once the piece became more famous, by 2005 it was voted the
favourite roundabout in the country by a survey of Britain's
motorists.
- Maurice Agis' Dreamspace V, a huge inflatable maze
erected in Chester-le-Street, County Durham, killed two women and
seriously injured a three-year-old girl when a strong wind broke
its moorings and carried it 30 ft into the air, with thirty
people trapped inside.
- 16 Tons
, Seth Wulsin's vast 2006
work includes the demolition of the raw material it works with,
namely a former skyscraper jail, Caseros
Prison, located in the middle of Buenos Aires
. The prison is guarded by the Argentine
military 24 hours a day, so that, in order to gain authorization to
carry out the project, Wulsin had to engage a huge network of
local, city and national government agencies, as well as groups of
former prisoners of the jail, former political prisoners, human
rights groups, and the military.
In any given controversy, complexities are involved. Though press
reports often present community debates as contests between two
rival camps, a variety of views exist among both art specialists
and lay public. Neither subset of the population is a monolithic
group. Art is challenged and defended in a variety of ways by a
number of individuals.
Recent developments in public art now demonstrate an appeal to a
friendlier notion of the public in the form of "community" art.
Artists accept the many contexts brought to public art by its
diverse audience, along with their own standing as members of the
communities they address. They design pieces that generally curb
avant-garde tendencies in favour of work that celebrates shared
experiences. This approach validates the concerns of most public
arts administrators and granting agencies. The approach encourages
community involvement and critique of art works in the planning
stages. It can head off controversies before large expenditures of
public resources are involved.
This approach tends to alienate those who wish to see art take a
more confrontational approach to social issues. Work that
emphasizes common experiences within a community, they charge,
plays down unpleasant conditions that persist within that
community. Art groups like the Viennese Wochen Klausur (Weeks of
Enclosure) aim to offer an alternative by working with expert
agencies and using contemporary art idioms to explore possible
solutions to pressing social problems.
Sustainability of Public Art
Public art faces a design challenge by its very nature: how best to
activate the images in its surroundings. The concept of “
sustainability” arises in response to the
perceived environmental deficiencies of a city.
Sustainable development, promoted by
the
United Nations since the 1980s,
includes economical, social, and ecological aspects. A sustainable
public art work would include plans for urban regeneration and
disassembly. Sustainability has been widely adopted in many
environmental planning and engineering projects.
Sustainable art is a challenge to respond
the needs of an opening space in public.
Bibliography
- "One Place After Another", Miwon Kwon. MIT
Press, 2003.
- Public Art by the Book, edited by Barbara Goldstein.
2005.
- "Dialogues in Public Art", edited by Tom Finkelpearl. MIT
Press, 2000.
- "The Interventionists: Users' Manual for the Creative
Disruption of Everyday Life", edited by Nato Thompson and Gregory
Sholette. MASS MoCA, 2004.
- "Conversation Pieces: Community + Communication in Modern Art",
Grant Kester. University
of California Press, 2004.
- Mapping the Terrain: New Genre Public Art, edited by
Suzanne Lacy. Bay Press, 1995.
- "Evictions: Art and Spatial Politics", Rosalyn Deutsche. MIT
Press, 1998.
- "In/Different Spaces: Place and Memory in Visual Culture",
Victor Burgin. University of California Press, 1996.
- Art, Space and the City: Public Art and Urban Futures,
Malcolm Miles. 1997.
- Spirit Poles and Flying Pigs: Public Art and Cultural
Democracy in American Communities, Erika Lee Doss. 1995
- Critical Issues in Public Art: Content, Context, and
Controversy, Harriet Senie and Sally Webster. 1993.
- Public Art Review, Forecast Public Art. Bi-Annual
publication
- On the Museum's Ruins, Douglas Crimp. MIT Press,
1993.
- Art For Public Places: Critical Essays, by Malcolm
Miles et al. 1989.
- "Marching Plague: Germ Warfare and Global Public Health",
Critical Art Ensemble. Autonomedia, 2006.
- The Lansing Area Arts Attitude Survey, by Suzanne Love
and Kim Dammers. Michigan State University Center for Urban
Affairs, 1978?
- Outdoor Monuments of Manhattan: A Historical Guide, by
Dianne Durante. New York University Press, 2007
See also
References
External links
in the
English New Town of Peterlee
has been a focus for local politicians and other
groups complaining about the governance of the town and allocation
of resources. In this case artists and cultural leaders
from the region mounted a campaign to rehabilitate the reputation
of the work with the Baltic Centre for Contemporary
Art
commissioning artists Jane and Louise Wilson to make a
video installation about the
piece in 2003.
Top topics
Wikis
Quiz
Facts
Map
Search
