WHOSE MONUMENT WHERE:

PUBLIC ART IN A Many cultured SOCIETY

BY JUDITH F. BACA

The term "public art" used in an audience of many cultures 

brings to mind different images, in each of us.  Perhaps some of 

us envision the frescos and statues of the Italian renaissance, 

Christo's   umbrellas,   the   murals   of   Los   Tres   Grandes,   or   the 

ritual sand paintings or totems of native peoples.

    Like   adobe   formed   from   mud   into   the   building   blocks   and 

constructs of a society, the purpose of any monument may be to 

investigate and reveal the memory contained in the ground beneath 

a "public site" marking our passages as a people and revisioning 

official  history.     The   ultimate  question   for   us   to   consider   as 

public artists as we create the monuments of the '90's 'is what 

shall we choose to memorialize in our time..

Over my years as a public artist I am continually struck by 

how our common legacy in public art is derived from the "canon in 
the park" concept.   By that I mean, that impulse that caused us 

to drag out the rusty canons from our past wars and polish them 

up  and  put   them   in  the  park for children to crawl over  at the 

sunday picnic.  The purpose was to evoke a time past in which the 

"splendid triumphs" and "struggles of our forefathers" veered the 

course   of   history.     These   expositions   were   meant   to   inspire 

an"awe"   in   us   of   the   power   of   our   great   nation   to   assert   its 

military will and triumph over enemies.   Running our hands over 

the polished brass we share in these victories become enlisted in 
their causes. Never mind,if as people of color they were not our 

forefathers, or if the triumphs were often over our own people. 

A   more   contemporary   example   of   the   cannons   in   the   park 

occurred   at   the   promenade   of   military   weapons   in   the   mall   in 

Washington   D.C.   immediately after  the  American  declared  victory 

of   the   Gulf   War   had   a   similar   intention.     In   an   exhibition 

prepared for  American families in the adjoining Smithsonian hall 

of   Science,   a   grandfather's     voice   (sounding   remarkably   like 

Ronald Reagan) soothed us into believing the war was a bloodless 

giant   computerized   science   demonstration.     Young   American   men 

with     reflects adroitly trained in a video game culture, were 

asserted   to   have   demonstrated   our   superiority   as   a   nation   over 

Saddam Hussane through video screen strategic air strikes.  From 

the bronze general on horse back in the plaza, where the public's 

view   is   the   underside   of   hooves   of   the   triumphant   soldier 

galloping; to its more contemporary corporate versions, we find 

examples   of   public   art   in   the   service   of   dominance.       The 

intention of these works, is more than to create giant decorative 

pigeon   pedestals.   It   is   by   their   daily   presence   in   our   lives, 

that they intend to persuade us of the justice of the acts they 

represent.   

  The   power   of   the   corporate   sponsor   is   embodied   in   the 

sculpture   standing   in   front   of   the   towering   office   building. 

These   grand   works,   just   as   their   military   predecessors   in   the 

parks, inspire a sense of "awe" in the viewer, by their scale and 

the importance of the artist. Here, public art is unashamed in 

its intention to mediate between the public and the developer. In 
a "things go down better with public art" mentality, the bitter 

pills of development, are delivered to the public.  While percent 

for   art   bills   have   heralded   developers   creation   of   amenable 

public places as a positive side effect of "growth",  every urban 

inch   of   space   is   swallowed   by   skyscrapers   and   privatized   into 

none public/ public space of shopping malls and corporate plazas. 

In these developments, the public is predetermined to select out 

homeless,   vendors,   adolescent   youth,   urban   poor   and   people   of 

color,­­   undesirable.   Planters,   benches,   and   other   "public 

amenities"   are   suspect   for   their   potential   hazards   as   public 

loitering   places.   With   the   loss   of   botanicas,   mercados, 

vendadors,and   all   things   familiar,   ethnic   people   disappear   to 

another corner of the city reinforcing segregation . 

Los Angeles provides the clearest examples of development as 

a colonizing and displacement tool of ethnic communities. Public 

Art   often   plays   a   supportive   role   in   these   agendas.   Infamous 

developments   such   as   dodger   stadium   which   displaced   a   historic 

Mexican   community,   the   Bunker   Hill   development   which   displaced 

another   (now   home   to   the   premier   arts   center,THE   MUSIC   CENTER) 

and   less   well   documented   history   of   the   intersection   of   four 

major   freeways   through   east   Los   Angeles's   Chicano   communities 

abound in public record, if not consciousness. One of the most 

catastrophic  consequences occurred in the service of an endless 

real   estate   boom   in   the   concreting   of   the   entire   Los   Angeles 

river   on   which   the   city   was   founded.   The   river,once   atrophied 

into   hardened   arteries,   created   a   giant   scar   across   the   land, 

serving to  further  divide, an already  divided  city. It is this 

metaphor that inspired my own half mile long mural on the history 

of   ethnic   peoples   in   the   L.A.   river   conduit.   Just   as   young 

chicanos tattoo battle scars on their bodies, the Great Wall of 

L.A. is a tattoo on a scar where the river once ran. Its imagery 

reappears the disappeared stories of ethnic populations that make 

up the labor force that built our city,state and nation. Painted 

over   a   nine   year   period   this   half   mile   work   parallels   in   its 

model   process   the   content   of   interracial   connections,   in 

community and participant dialoques.

Public art can become an amelioration by beauty, as in the 

Melmid and Komar's work in first interstate bank in down town los 

Angeles where two New York based Russian artists were selected to 

decorate   the   lobby   of   the   new   skyscraper.   To   represent 

multiculturalism   in   Los   Angeles,   the   artists   choose   the   angels 

from   Our   Lady   of   the   Angeles   of   Porcincula's   chapel   in   Italy. 

"Borrowing " the precolumbian feathered serpent Quetzalcoatl from 

the   Aztecs,   the   crowned   mahogany   headpiece   from   the   Nigerian 

masks   and   the   eagles   wings   for   our   diverse   native   peoples   as 

"emblematic of a variety

of   cultures"   the   artists   tacked   on   ethnic   emblems   to   european 

angels.  These symbols stood in for the real voices of people of 

color in a city torn by the greatest civil disorder in U.S. in 

this   century.   At   the   dedication   which   took   place   shortly   after 

the rebellion, black and latino children unveiled the angels in a 

elaborate ribbon cutting ceremony. Hailed by the developers as a 

great symbol of "unity," artifacts stood in for the real people 

in a city terrified of the majority of its citizens. Tragically 
the 500,000.00 spent on this single work was more money than the 

whole of the city's budget to funds public mural by ethnic artist 

who work within los angeles's diverse  Chinese, African American, 

Korean,   Thai,   Chicano,   Central   American,   neighborhoods   and 

employs local youth as apprentices. This work provides just one 

local example of a growing national phenomena in public art. 

No single view of public space and the art that accompanies 

it   will   work   in   a   metropolis   of   multiple   perspectives.   While 

competition   for   Public   space   grows   daily,   cultural   communities 

call for its use in dramatically different ways. What comes into 

question is the very different sensibilities of order and beauty 

that operate in different cultures.   

When Christo, for example, looked for the first time at the 

El Tejon Pass (badger in Spanish).  He saw potential.  He saw the 

potential to create beauty, with a personal vision imposed on the 

landscape.     A   beauty   that   fit   his   individual   vision   of   yellow 

umbrellas fluttering in the wind marching up the sides of rolling 

hills.  The land  became his canvas, a backdrop for his personal 

aesthetic vision.  

  Native people would look at the same landscape with a very 

different   idea   of   beauty   without   imposition.     A   perfect   order 

exemplified   in   nature   itself,   integral   to   a   spiritual   life 

grounded in place.   Nature is not to be tampered with, hence a 

plant taken an offering made in return.    Richard Ray Whitman a 

native American artist said , "Scientifically cohesive ­ I am the 

atoms,   molecules,   blood,   and   dust   of   my   ancestors   ­   not   as 

history but as a continuing people.  We describe our culture as a 
circle by which we mean that it is and integrated whole,....  It 

is   the   circle   of   my   cultural   traditions   and   experiences   that 

allows me to be a human person.  Our, and my way of being human 

is to be a Yuchi person, not only human to humans, but human to 

other forms of life". Maintaining a relationship with the dust of 

ones ancestors requires a generational relationship with the land 

and a respectful treatment of other life.

Or   perhaps   native   peoples   could   not   think   of   the   area 

without recalling Fort Tejon.  One of the first California Indian 

reservations   established   near   this   site   in   the   Tehachapi 

Mountains   placed   there   to   "protect"   the   Indians   who   had   been 

rounded   up   from   various   neighboring   peoples,   most   of   whose 

cultures   have   been   destroyed.     Two   different   aesthetic 

sensibilities as divergent as the 19th Century English manicured 

garden and the rugged natural New Mexican landscape of the Santo 

Cristos mountains.

Perhaps   a   more   extreme   example   of   Christo's   idea   and   far 

less benign notion is the concept that landscape untouched by man 

is "undeveloped land".  This is a continuance of the long line of 

thought   that   can   best   be   described   simply   as   "the   man   over 

nature" concept, on which this country was founded. This thought 

has   brought   us   clear   cut,   in   first   growth   forest   in   the 

Northwest,   and   concrete   conduits   that   kill   rivers   as   an 

acceptable   method   of   flood   control.     These   ideas   find   their 

parallel   in   the   late   modernist   and   post   modernist   cult   of   the 

exalted   individual,   in   which   an   individual's   vision   and 

originality   holds   the   highest   value.   As   a   solitary   creator   he 

values   self   expression   and   "artist   freedom";   ie.   separatenss 

rather than connectedness.   He is therefore responsible only to 

himself rather than to a shared vision or fails to reconcile the 

individual to the whole. 

When   the   nature   of   the  Tejon   pass  asserted  itself,   during 

the   Christo's   project;   a   place   known   to   locals   for   its   high 

winds, and uprooted the umbrella planted in the ground, causing 

the   tragic   death   of   a   woman   who   had   come   to   see   the   work. 
Christo said "My project imitates real life".

Why   is   it   not   possible   for   public   art   to   do   more   than 

imitate   life?     Public   art   could   be   inseparable   from   the   daily 

life of the people for which it was created. Developed to live 

harmoniously in the pubic space it could have a function within 

the community and even provide venue for their voices.

    I couldn't help musing what a different project it would have 

been had the beautiful yellow umbrella marched through skid row 

where Los Angeles's 140,000 homeless lie in the rain.  Art cannot 

any longer be tied to the none functionalist state relegated it 

by   modernism   and   post   modernism   in   the   "art   for   arts   sake" 

tyranny.   Would it not have been even more beautiful sheltering 

people in need of shelter and the gesture an important statement 

about   our   failure   as   a   society   to   provide   even   the   most   basic 

needs for the poor. 

At least in part for the the Mexican sensibility, public art 

is   best   manifested   by   the   work   of   Mexican   artist   David   Alfaro 

Siqueiros in Los Angeles's  historic  Olvera St. This 19.. mural 

having   been   painted   over   for   more   than   70   yrs   by   1930's   city 
fathers   because   of   its   portrayal   of   the   plight   of   chicanos   in 

California, is currently in restoration.     Siqueiros depicted a 

mestizo shooting at the American eagle and a crucified Chicano as 

the central figure. While this mural is becoming museo­fied today 

with millions of dollar provided by the Getty foundation for its 

preservation and re­presentation to the public, it is important 

to recognize that the same images would most likely be censored 

on Los Angeles's streets today. The subject matter is as relevant 
now,seventy   years   later   as   it   was   then.     The   subject   of 

domination   and   resistance   by   Los   Angeles   latino   or   other 

population   of   color   depicted   in   a   mural,   provides   contemporary 

muralists   with   same   official   resistance   to   its   portrayal   as   it 

did Sigueiros in 1927. Despite these struggles, Murals became the 

only   interventions   into   public   spaces   that   provide   the 

articulated   presence   of   ethnicity   in   many   communities. 

Architecture and planning did little to accommodate communities 

of   color   in   our   city.       As   competition   for   public   space   has 

grown, public art policies have become calcified and increasingly 

bureaucratic.  Art that is sanctioned has lost the political bite 

of  earlier  70's murals.   Nevertheless, a rich legacy of murals 

has   been   produced   since   America   Tropical   was   painted   by   the 

maestro   in   Olvera   street.   Thousands   of   public   murals   in   places 

where people live and work have made tangible in public monuments 

the   shared   experience   of   communities   of   color.   Here   chicano 

murals provided the leadership for other communities to use the 

form   to   assert   their   presence   and   articulate   at   least   in   part 

their   issues.   Today   in   our   city   works   appear   that   speak   of 
children caught in the cross fire of gang warfare in the barrios 

of Sylmar to the hidden problem of Aids in the african american 

community of south central, to the 

The generations that followed the mural movement who grew up 

in neighborhoods where the murals dotted the landscape have been 

influenced by these works.  With few avenues open to training and 

art   production   graffiti   art   has   become   another   method   of 

resistance by the youth to privatized public space. As the first 
visual   art   form   developed   by   youth   culture   it   has   become   the 

focus of increasingly severe reprisals by authorities that spend 

52 million dollars annually in the county of los Angeles to abate 

what   they   refer   to   as   the   "skin   cancer   of   society".   It   is   no 

accident   that   the   proliferation   of   graffitti   is   concurent   with 

the reduction of all youth recreation and training int the arts 

programs   in   the   schools.   My   work   in   communities   in   the 

producition of public artworks has put me into contact with many 

of these youth.  

I   was   called   to   a   local   high   school   one   day   after   having 

convinced   one   of   the   youth   of   the   Great   Wall   that   he   should 

return   to   school.     (The   Great   Wall   project   one   of   my   projects 

that is a mural that is a half mile long mural in Los Angeles on 

the history of ethnic people in America which has employed over 

300   youth   artists.)     The   urgent   call   from   the   boy   in   the 

principles   office   said,"   I   need   you   to   come   here   right   away 

because   I'm   going   to   get   thrown   out   of   school   again."   My   deal 

formulated  over  a long  association was that he would not leave 

school again without talking to me first.  I arrived to find the 
principal  towering  over  the young cholo whose head was held in 

the defiant manner, I had seen over and over in my work with the 

gangs.   This   stance   reminiscent   of   a   warrior,   the   kids   call 

unceremoniously, "holding your mug" is about maintaining dignity 

in   adverse   circumstances.     The   principal   said   with   total 

frustration,   "You've   written     on   the   school's   walls   and   you 

simply do not have respect for other peoples property. Tell me, 

would you do this in your own house?" I couldn't help but smile 
at his admonition at this point, in spite of the seriousness of 

the   situation.     This   boy   was   an   important   graffiti   artists   in 

town and indeed having visited his house I had seen the walls of 

his   room;   where   every   square  inch   was  intricately  covered  with 

the  writings  of  the  boy.   What was operating was two  different 

notions of beauty and order.  Obviously there was a dispute about 

ownership of the school as well.   The boys opinion was that he 

had aesthetically imporved the property not destroyed it.

This is a time when the conditions of our communities are 

worse than those that precipitated the civil rights activism of 

the   60's   and   70's.   52%   of   all   african   american   children   are 

living in poverty and 42% of all latino children are living in 

poverty. Drop out rates exceed our graduate rates in the african 

american and latino communities.       What then is the role of a 

socially responsible public artist?  When wealth and poverty are 

increasingly   polarized   in   our   society,   face   to   face 

confrontations occur more often in our urban enviroments, often 

with catastrophic consequences.  Can public art avoid coming down 

on the side of wealth and dominence in that confrontation? How 
can   we   judge   the   success   of   our   public   artwork   and   as   artists 

avoid becoming aids to colonization? If we choose not to look to 

our victories and advancements in terms of triumphs over nations 

or neighborhoods, what monuents shall we build? How can we assist 

in   creating   a   public   memory   for   a   many­cultured   society.   Whose 

story shall we tell? 

 Of greatest interest to me is the inventions of systems of 

voice­giving   to   those   left   without   venue   to   speak.   Socially 

responsibly   Artists   from   marginalized   communities   have   a 

particular   responsibility   to   articulate   those   conditions   and 

provide catalyst for change, as perceptions of us as individuals 

are   tied   to   the   conditions   of   our   communities   in   a   racially 

unsophisticated society.  We cannot excape it even when we choose 

to try. We are made of the "blood and dust" of our ancestors in a 

"continuing History". Being a catalyst for change will change us 

also.   We can evaluate ourselves by the processes we choose, not 

simply by the art objects we create. Is the work a private act in 

a   public   space?   It   is   the   focus   on   the   object   devoid   of   the 

creator that has brought us to a moral bankruptcy in eurocentric 

modernism and postmodernist traditions. 

For   me,   what   represents   something   deeper   and   more   hopeful 

about the future of our ethnically and class divided cities are 

partnerships   that   move   well   beyond   the   traditional   notions   of 

architect   and   artist.   These   partnerships   include   artists   and 

social service providers, artists and environmental activists and 

artists   and   communities,   and   bring   people   into   conversations 

about   their   visions   of   and   for   their   neighborhoods.   Finding   a 

place for those ideas in monuments that rise from below is the 

most challenging task for public artist in this time.
 EXCERPT FROM SELF DESCRIPTION

   OVER THE PAST 24 YEARS AS A CHICANA ARTIST, MURALIST, ACTIVIST 

AND INSTITUTION BUILDER, I AND MY COMPANEROS HAVE CREATED MODELS 

OF   PUBLIC   ARTISTS   AS   MENTORS,   MEMBERS   OF   A   COMMUNITY,   AND 

STIMULUS   TO   CHANGE:     RECOGNIZING   THAT   THE   WORK   OF   ARTISTS   OF 

COLOR WERE AND ARE TIED TO THE CONDITIONS OF OUR COMMUNITIES. THE 

WORKING POOR, AND 

" public by creating monuments that serve as public memory that 
resonate through the streets" JB QUOTE

IDEA:  Should   public   art   and   public   good   be   equated?     "Why 

not"?  Certainly,  public art should not imitate the worst of our 

experiences   in   life   nor   be   used   as   a   method   of   promoting   and 

individuals vision at the expense of the public.

An   artists   genuinely   interested   in   working   in   the   environment 

inevitably will begin, as many have, to address some of the most 

complex issues of our time; from toxic waste to garbage disposal, 

to   the   destruction   of   rivers,   as   well   as   the   race   relations, 

cultural retention, gang warfare, aging and homelessness.

  I think so.   Where does the art begin and end?   artists 

have   the   unique   ability   to   transcend   designated   spheres   of 

activity.     Collaborations   can   move   beyond   the   artist   and 

architect   to   the   artist   and   the   historian,   the   scientist,   the 

environmentalist,   or   the   social   service   provider.     Even   to   the 

artist in the community.

What is exciting to me as a public artist, about the future in 

public   art   is   precisely   the   postulating   of   answers   to   these 

difficult questions.   Who is the public now that it has changed 

color?   how do people of different ethnic and class groups use 

public   space   differently?     What   do   we   want   to   place   in   the 

publics memory?   How do we as people of diverse culture measure 

time, societal advancement, and achievement?

IDEA:

  Possibly of greatest interest to me is what sort of processes 

can   we   invent   that   will   make   it   possible   to   make   an   art   that 

raises from below, so to speak, an art that gives voice to the 

voiceless.