ISSUE 003
PUBLIC ART A POSSIBILITY, NOT A PANACEA
public
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1. of, relating to, or affecting a population or a community as a whole 2. done, made, acting, etc., for the community as a whole
CHASE MCCURDY
art
1. the quality, production, expression, or realm of things that conform to accepted aesthetic principles of beauty, show imagination and skill, and have more than ordinary meaning and importance [from dictionary.com]
Public art is appreciated. Public art is loved. Public art can be large, small, abstract, representational, words, objects, on the ground, in the sky, or on a building. The linking thread is the possibility, the potential for public art to do many things. While this is most definitely the case, we must also be aware that public art is not necessarily an end in and of itself. Having worked in and around public art for the better part of the last five years, I believe deeply in the possibilities. Yet I maintain a very critical eye toward the using of public art as a band-aid or some sort of pacifier of community. I believe it is important for those of us engaged in the creation of the arts to be lovingly critical of public art in its various uses. The personal art practice is sacred and ultimately the business of the artist up until the point of exhibition, if one chooses to exhibit. Public art by its very nature is the complete opposite. It is expressly intended for the general public and to serve such purpose from inception. This purpose can be considered minimalist and intimate, or aspirational and maximalist—it is often the second set of idealized purposes where we need to maintain a critical eye. Proponents of public art often believe that these works, from murals to sculptures, will in some way inspire and change communities. While this is a generous intention, we have to be careful not to romanticize this idea, as public art can easily do the opposite. It can alienate the community. It can serve as a sign of coming gentrification, or it can serve to agitate the very people it means to honor. We must do our very best to properly use those resources, whether public or private, that we are entrusted with to create artworks expressly meant for others.
I maintain a very critical eye toward the using of public art as a band-aid … I believe it is important for those of us engaged in the creation of the arts to be lovingly critical of public art in its various uses.
QUESTIONS TO ASK ONESELF AS A PUBLIC ARTIST How will the space around the intended artwork be used?
Does the artwork initiate/invite coming together? group discussion? ritual?
Are you using public funds or private funds?
“Private” property or public property?
Do you as the artist have a historical and cultural understanding of the community the public art is intended to serve?
Is the intent of the public art to inform/teach, entertain, capture attention, memorialize, etc? Large or small? Why/why not?
Is it about “art” or something deeper?
Have you considered the perspectives of the funder(s) and potential viewers?
Before public art there were monuments honored and revered by various peoples through various times. Long before humans felt the need to create the external idea of “art,” we encountered and documented in clay, rock, charcoal, etc., the natural phenomena on our earth and in the visible cosmos that have served to inspire, teach, excite and ground. Mountains and their personalities, water, fire, plant and animal life (extra large to minuscule), the stars in the sky all provide moments of awe, respect, and humility. Times have changed, but we remain the same. Natural marvels have been replaced by those manmade. We still marvel nonetheless. Our current epoch is one identified by a search for meaning, search for purpose, and a search for the real. The plastic and performative arts, in our modern society, are one of the last spaces that an overwhelmingly apathetic public come to for answers to these questions of meaning, purpose, and the real. Public art is where our nature-based notions of marvel and modern-informed ideas of questioning come together with the hope of affecting the general public in some positive fashion. From large-scale works that command big budgets to small-scale projects that require the minimum resources to execute, when a work of writing, sculpture, painting, drawing, performance, dance, audio/video, or photo is introduced to the public sphere for general and sometimes passive interaction, we have engaged in what we consider to be public art. Much like the artist in the studio, when one is acting of one’s own accord there are no rules to what one is choosing to create, outside of the laws of the state of course. Interactions with authorities
