Public Art

Your question is so broad that it is really hard to answer.

I live in Portland, Oregon where we have some great public art and some terrible public art.

"The Big Red Ball" was here a few weeks ago and I thought it was very cool, others thought it was stupid.

But everyone had an opinion - they thought about it - and isn't that the beauty of public art?

Public art


Same here

I live in NY.

I think public art should blend, compliment nature. I like to feel that the art is part of nature, me, and not something alien and different. After all it is created by humans for humans in the planet that is also part of us. Bad public art to me clashes with nature, it might be their size, color, lines or meaning.

AE

hi boomerang, yes i know the question is broad, and i was looking for broad answers. i think the issues relative to "public art in general" have to be broad. i come from a place that didn't even have it to begin with, so i sometimes look at it from a very oblique angle.

so to be specific, what do you thin of the public art going on at the Japan Society in NYC. Takashi Murakami's work?

http://www.japansociety.org/events/current.cfm

City Glow
art liker,

City Glow looks like an interesting exhibit, I might take a train ride there and see it. It reminds me of the #1 poem I posted in the Original Writing section of this forum "A Cubist Poem, The City". Thanks for the link.

AE

That's a tough question on several levels so let me start here:

Many years ago when I was in photography school one of our assingments was to photograph public art. I was living in Chicago so access to public art was a snap -- it's everywhere. When I started on the assignment all of the images I shot seemed so stilted and barren. Then I stepped back and began to shoot people interacting with the art and I finally made some images that I liked.

That experience forever changed the way I view public art - the best works invite the viewer in to play and therefore change the artwork with their presence.

Two dimensional displays really, by their very nature, don't issue that invitation.

Using my own personal criteria the Elephant sculptures would be the one I'd most like to see. Sadly, mounting the sculpture on pedistals will surely keep people from interacting with the exhibit.

The funny things is that I really like the other images better than the Elephants and would rather see those in a gallery setting than as works of public art. I like the way they fuse more traditional Japanese style with manga - two areas of art I'm rather fond of.

boomerang: i'm trying to get a copy og the exhibition catalogue for the show at the japan society. they're sold out now, but i think they'll have more soon. i am a total novice on manga. Right now, I agree with you on the elephants, but knowing that Murakami's hold a PhD in traditional Japanse painting it's hard for to believe that isn't a lot behind the work. I do know that the exhibition name "little boy" was the code name for the bomb dopped by the US on Japan.

i like what you have to say about public art and the value of human interaction. without it, what good would it be? i think back to my original question, the broad one, and i think i was even looking for some answers on the concept of public art, down to its funding and administrative roots, and what anyone thinks of this. there are plenty of sites that explain how various municipal public art programs work.

Oregon is a 1% for art state (I think there are around 30 states that fund public art this way) and I'm all for that. As to other funding and administration, I don't know enough about it to comment on it.

If I remember correctly, the elephant typically symbolizes both caution and wisdom in Japanese art. Presenting these traits is a very Hello Kitty cuteness would, I imagine, have a very specific intent. But as to whether the artist is making a comment on the past, the present or the future, I have no idea.

As to manga, for a long time I really thought of it as crappy Saturday morning cartoon drawing. My nephew is really keen on anything Japanese so one year for his birthday I hit the Japanese bookstore for some comics and discovered the wonderful world of manga.

Re: Public Art


I live in Austin, Tx and we have some great public art. (Murals from Doug Jackes, a mosaic from John Yancey) plus some creative street signs.

We also have some incredibly crappy public art, comissioned by the city. A man painted a few walls around town lake electric blue. Everyone thinks they are constructing the actual artwork. I think he recieved $30,000 for this! Way to spend the taxpayer's money.

I might support government funded art if they didn't have such terrible (often politically swayed) taste. In a way, that takes money away from good artists.

In Philly there are some of the most interesting, cooky, outrageous, banal, trite, tremendous public art.
I love the 3 story clothespin its a hoot. The sculpture of Ben Franklins kite right on the Pa side of the Ben Franklin Bridge, Rodin Sculptures on the Parkway.
The immense pile of , what looks like dog crap, in front of the water department complex. Billy Penn done by Alexander Calder on top of the Court House, Lots of "dead Guys on Horseback" like one of George Mclellan next to City HAwl. It is a bit atypical because it shows Mclellan with sword drawn.
At the Windham Hotel and the museum centers on the PArkway are a bunch of bronze sculptures of everyday people just sitting on benches, kids shooting marbles, mothers and walkers. These were done by Charles Parks of Delaware. Theres a zigurrat (why a zigurrat, Ill never understand). That, plus the public murals on building sides, add an interest and often a chuckle, sometimes a tear.
The clothespin and dog crap usedto piss off the then mayor Frank Rizzo. But he never got it anyway.

be active
For all and any of you who offer constructive criticism to the public art process in any capacity, which is political, I want to remind you all that most programs offer a place for citizen input at regular board and commission meetings. I encourage all of you to actively participate in your local municipal art program. After all, it is Public Art. Go to your city's website, check the meetings calendar, show up, and least attempt to make a difference--that is, if you're interested.