Jamin Doyle Prof.

Mikulay Her-H400 Monday, April 5, 2010

Art in Public Spaces;

Richard Serra & Sculture:
Is it art? Art in public spacesversus places for public art. What constitutes the publicity of civic art? Art in public spaces is subject to change; i.e. 1981-1989, artists Richard Sierras work titled: Tilted Arc. It is not an easy question to answer, what constitutes public art versus art in public spaces? Spacing and placing art in public plazas, parks, avenues, etc. at the artists discretion or otherwise indiscretion does not necessarily constitute public art. (i.e. see grafti.) And likewise, positioning the orientation of art in public spaces at the expense of the public does not necessarily beget the honorable title of the disputed site-specic art. It begs the question, what determines site-specic art? In essence, the determining factor is the particular situation therein. As an artist dealing in site-specic art it is difcult to represent the thoughts, values, views and opinons of many in the face of the few who are willing to fund it. Similarly, how to represent an idea of what might constitute an exceptional concept clearly composed of both the artist and his/her audience. At what point does the artists license end and the publics capacity for creativity begin? It seems as though the answer lies somewhere in between the two and who determines the outcome. What is the deciding factor, the NEA, (Natl Endowment for the Arts) responsible for allocating our interest in the arts; the government, the artist, and/or the people who it represents or the people who represent the government? These are all important entities with aspects and attributes including but not limited to the same or similar and altogether different sets of values and ideal all of which are subject to change when given in to any separate set of circumstances. Just as each century has its own zeit geist, so too does each ethnicity. They all have their own denitive determining factor so as to decide what is and is not a part of its culture. And culture is always changing. In much the same way, to be an artist and make art for a specic culture and/or underlying sub-cultures is a task very near insurmountable. There are always political and societal dissidents. To be an artist in an ever-changing world and make art for a time that only exits in the moment is to perform an ephemeral production that may only last a year, 5 years, a decade, or no longer than a life-time. Perhaps this is why many an unknown artist has gone on for so long without notice during his lifetime until after he is past away and his works are post-humously displayed in a traveling gallery or museum with a gathering sense of nostalgia and a brief description of his life and times of in living in it. How to curtail this conundrum throughout the duration of ones lifetime as an artist is a problem. It can really only go one of two ways, either to go with the ow and make art based on the way what other should have you make it. Or, to go your own way and to make art the way you believe it should be made and for what purpose. Some see it t to conform what with the way they are told to make art and give in to outside inuence, whereas others might be more prone to make a statement accept the responsibility and suffer the consequences. Poets, writers, and critics all enjoy the luxury of analyzing everything when it comes to assuaging others towards art or dissuading others from it. But does their opinion determine the fate of a successful versus an unsuccessful work of art? No. Similarly, their opinion only validates their reason, their writings not so heavily and hotly debated because they are not so readily visible in the realm of the public sphere. However, in any case they cannot all be winners and so it is hard to please everybody. Life is art, art is an expression of feeling, and a feeling is ephemeral, once it has been made it cannot be remade. Site-specic art depends on the circumstances, and so it is an ephemeral performance that is always subject to the inevitable progress of change. So then, what determines a successful public display of art? One such that addresses an important socio-political problem, and one that does not last long because by then hopefully it will have resolved the problem it had originally addressed.