tag:theconversation.com,2011:/ca/topics/public-art-11727/articles
Public art – The Conversation
2024-03-12T13:52:34Z
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/223458
2024-03-12T13:52:34Z
2024-03-12T13:52:34Z
Colonial statues in Africa have been removed, returned and torn down again – why it’s such a complex history
<p>In 2020, the <a href="https://www.mprnews.org/crime-law-and-justice/killing-of-george-floyd">murder of George Floyd</a> in the US served as a catalyst for the global <a href="https://library.law.howard.edu/civilrightshistory/BLM">Black Lives Matter movement</a>. It sparked widespread protests against police brutality and systemic racism. It also ignited <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2016/mar/16/the-real-meaning-of-rhodes-must-fall">debates</a> about historical symbols of oppression, such as statues of figures associated with racial injustices. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2020-06-12/pulling-down-statues-of-racists-africas-done-it-for-years">These debates presented colonial statues</a> in Africa as having been contested and toppled for many years, ever since African states gained independence. Indeed, colonial statues were at the heart of the colonial world, symbolising its violence, white supremacy and the erasure of precolonial history. But colonial monuments in African public spaces have much more complex and often overlooked histories.</p>
<p>As a scholar of African heritage, I recently published a <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/13527258.2023.2294738">study</a> examining colonial statues and how they have been regarded in postcolonial Africa. My historical investigation highlights three major phases. </p>
<p>First, in the era of independence of African states, from the 1950s to 1980, some statues were removed from public spaces, but many remained. </p>
<p>Second, the 1990s and 2000s were marked by the “return of empires”: statues that had been removed were put back in public spaces and new neo-colonial monuments were constructed. </p>
<p>Third, the renewed challenges to colonial statues from the 2010s faced some strong resistance. Understanding this history is crucial, as it exposes the challenges of truly moving beyond the colonial world and order.</p>
<h2>Colonial statues at independence (1950s-1980)</h2>
<p>As African countries gained independence from the 1950s to the 1980s, colonial statues faced three main fates: recycling; defacement or toppling; and on-site preservation. </p>
<p>Recycling involved relocating statues from former colonies to former colonial metropolises. Most went from Algeria to France and from Kenya to England. The statues of <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/f3760af0-6545-11e4-91b1-00144feabdc0">Lord Kitchener</a> and <a href="https://equestrianstatue.org/gordon-charles-george/">General Gordon</a>, for example, were sent from Khartoum in Sudan to England in 1958. The reasons for these repatriations were multiple and included the desire to keep alive memory of colonial times and to feed colonial nostalgia. </p>
<p>Defacing or toppling was the second phenomenon, which occurred across the continent, from Algeria to Mozambique. One instance was the defacement and toppling of the <a href="https://www.academia.edu/51780170/The_Maid_of_Algiers_Deploying_and_dismantling_Joan_of_Arc_as_a_globe_trotting_icon">statue of Joan of Arc</a> in Algiers in 1962. These acts of violence were necessary responses to the violence of the colonial order and represented a break from the past. They also symbolised the cleansing of public spaces, to destroy symbolically the power imbalances, racism, inequalities and urban exclusions that defined the colonial world. Some of these toppled statues were then sent back and recycled in the former metropolis. </p>
<p>However, across Africa, many colonial monuments remained untouched, for various reasons. Some African leaders at independence were pro-Europe, having been educated there or having worked there during colonial times. And at independence, privileged links were forged between the former colonies and the metropolises. This was the case with some former French colonies. As a result, the leaders of former French colonies did not want to change the key symbols of the colonial world. </p>
<h2>The empires strike back (1990s-2000s)</h2>
<p>From the 1990s, many colonial statues dismantled and hidden during the independence era were reinstalled. Aid from former imperial powers to former colonial countries is one explanation. An example is the controversial <a href="https://contestedhistories.org/wp-content/uploads/Democratic-Republic-of-Congo_-Leopold-II-Statue-in-Kinshasa.pdf">re-erection of the statue of former Belgian king and Congo “owner” Leopold II</a> in front of the main train station in Kinshasa, capital of the Democratic Republic of Congo, in 2005. It’s easy to see why: the millions of US dollars in aid that Belgium gives the DRC every year.</p>
<p>The turn of the millennium also saw (neo)colonial statues deliberately erected to celebrate 19th century explorers and missionaries. In countries that were once part of the British Empire, such statues were built to attract tourists. For example, a new <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/13527258.2023.2294738">statue of David Livingstone was erected in 2005</a> for the 150th anniversary of his arrival at Mosi-oa-Tunya (Victoria Falls) in Zambia. It was paid for by airlines, travel agencies, luxury lodges, TotalEnergies and local authorities. </p>
<p>However, this statue of Livingstone can also be seen as an international event, linked to colonial monuments built with France’s cooperation. This is notably the case of the <a href="https://academic.oup.com/afraf/article-abstract/109/436/367/146718?redirectedFrom=fulltext">2006 Savorgnan de Brazza</a> memorial erected in Brazzaville, capital of the Republic of Congo. This project of Algeria, Congo, France and Gabon <a href="https://academic.oup.com/afraf/article-abstract/109/436/367/146718?redirectedFrom=fulltext">reburied</a> the remains of the Italian-French explorer De Brazza, his wife and their children in the memorial. </p>
<p>The project mixed geopolitics and bilateral aid, cultural diplomacy and colonial violence. Echoing imperial rivalries, the memorial and its statue also served as distinct markers of France’s spheres of influence, and its attempt to counteract its decline in the region.</p>
<h2>Renewed contestations (from the 2010s)</h2>
<p>(Neo)colonial monuments were increasingly contested in the 2010s. Such protests have accelerated in recent years and have become more visible, thanks to social networks.</p>
<p>The most famous case is the <a href="https://twitter.com/RhodesMustFall">Rhodes Must Fall movement</a>. This led to the removal of the statue of the British colonialist <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Cecil-Rhodes">Cecil John Rhodes</a> on the campus of the University of Cape Town in South Africa in April 2015. This movement opposed neoliberal economic systems which had failed to respond to fundamental change, especially in areas such as education.</p>
<p>The movement quickly spread to other countries, inspiring other protests such as “<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/dec/14/racist-gandhi-statue-removed-from-university-of-ghana">#GandhiMustFall</a>” in Ghana, Malawi and England. Statues of the Indian leader <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Mahatma-Gandhi">Gandhi</a>, considered a racist, were contested. Another movement is “<a href="https://faidherbedoittomber.org/a-propos/">Faidherbe must fall</a>”, aiming to remove the statue of the French colonial administrator Faidherbe in Saint-Louis/Ndar in Senegal and in Lille in France.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-background-story-to-a-statue-of-gandhi-and-the-university-of-ghana-117103">The background story to a statue of Gandhi and the University of Ghana</a>
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<p>Some of these movements have drawn attention to the link between colonial or racist statues and aid. For example, the #GandhiMustFall movement prevented the construction of a <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-46051184">Gandhi statue in Malawi in 2018</a>. This project was linked to a <a href="https://sikhsiyasat.net/india-offers-to-double-aid-for-malavi-as-malavian-government-agrees-to-install-gandhi-statue-despite-local-opposition/">US$10 million aid deal from India</a>.</p>
<h2>A complex issue</h2>
<p>While acknowledging successes in removing colonial statues, it is important not to overlook the substantial support for (neo)colonial monuments all over Africa. </p>
<p>Such support can be explained by pressure from former colonial powers and the links of elites with these countries. Financial constraints, international aid and the potential of tourism are also factors. Then there’s the conviction that all vestiges of the past, even the most painful, must be preserved.</p>
<p>The statue of the French military commander <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-53148608">Philippe Leclerc</a> in Douala in Cameroon, for example, still stands, despite being attacked several times by Cameroonian <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/7/7/the-activist-purging-cameroon-of-french-colonial-monuments">activist</a> André Blaise Essama.</p>
<p>As a result, (neo)colonial statues still have a bright future ahead of them.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/223458/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Sophia Labadi has received funding from the Humboldt Foundation and the Fritz Thyssen Foundation.</span></em></p>
The fate of several colonial statues in Africa continues to be a subject of controversy.
Sophia Labadi, Professor of Heritage, University of Kent
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/223265
2024-02-15T13:33:22Z
2024-02-15T13:33:22Z
For graffiti artists, abandoned skyscrapers in Miami and Los Angeles become a canvas for regular people to be seen and heard
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/575115/original/file-20240212-16-xnfgow.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C8%2C6000%2C4068&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Construction of Oceanwide Plaza in downtown Los Angeles stalled in 2019 after the China-based developer ran out of funding.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/an-aerial-view-of-graffiti-spray-painted-by-taggers-on-at-news-photo/1981900572?adppopup=true">Mario Tama/Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The three qualities that matter most in real estate also matter the most to graffiti artists: location, location, location. </p>
<p>In Miami and Los Angeles, cities that contain <a href="https://realestate.usnews.com/places/rankings/most-expensive-places-to-live">some of the most expensive real estate in the U.S.</a>, graffiti artists have recently made sure their voices can be heard and seen, even from the sky. </p>
<p>In what’s known as “graffiti bombing,” artists in both cities swiftly and extensively tagged downtown skyscrapers that had been abandoned. The efforts took place over the course of a few nights in December 2023 and late January 2024, with the results generating a mix of <a href="https://hyperallergic.com/870121/artists-make-los-angeles-graffiti-history-by-painting-on-abandoned-high-rises/">admiration</a> and <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6vLnXWZqv2I">condemnation</a>.</p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">KTLA 5 news highlights public outrage over a graffitied skyscraper in Los Angeles on Jan. 31, 2024.</span></figcaption>
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<p>As someone who has <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=gu-Z75sAAAAJ&hl=en">researched the intersection of graffiti and activism</a>, I see these works as major milestones – and not just because the artists’ tags are perhaps more prominent than they’ve ever been, high above street level and visible from blocks away. </p>
<p>They also get to the heart of how money and politics can make individuals feel powerless – and how art can reclaim some of that power.</p>
<h2>Two cities, two graffiti bombings</h2>
<p>Since late 2019, Los Angeles’ billion-dollar Oceanwide Plaza – a mixed-use residential and retail complex consisting of three towers – has stood unfinished. The Beijing-based developer <a href="https://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-oceanwide-project-stalled-20190223-story.html">was unable to pay contractors</a>, and ongoing financing challenges forced the company to put the project on pause. It’s located in one of the priciest parts of the city, right across the street from Crypto.com Arena, where the 2024 Grammy Awards were held. </p>
<p>Hundreds of taggers were involved in the Los Angeles graffiti bombing. It may never be publicly known how the idea was formed and by whom. But it seemed to have been inspired by a similar project that took place in Miami during <a href="https://www.artbasel.com/miami-beach?lang=en">Art Basel</a>, the city’s annual international art fair.</p>
<p>In November 2023, the city of Miami announced that a permit to demolish <a href="https://floridayimby.com/2023/11/florida-east-coast-realty-seeks-demolition-permit-for-19-story-building-paving-path-for-one-bayfront-plaza-supertall.html">One Bayfront Plaza site</a>, an abandoned former VITAS Healthcare building, had been filed.</p>
<p>Miami is known for <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/23/arts/design/miami-murals-wynwood.html">its elaborate spray-painted murals</a>. There’s also <a href="https://shop.bombingscience.com/miami-graffiti-art.html">a rich tradition of graffiti in the city</a>. So Miami was a natural gathering place for graffiti artists during Art Basel in December 2023, and One Bayfront Plaza became the canvas for taggers from around the world.</p>
<p>Over the course of a few days, graffiti artists – some of whom rappelled down the side of the building – <a href="https://www.architecturaldigest.com/story/brutalist-architecture-101">tagged the brutalist</a>, concrete structure with colorful bubble letters spelling their graffiti names: “EDBOX,” “SAUTE” and “1UP,” and hundreds more. </p>
<p>The response to the Miami bombing was more <a href="https://www.complex.com/style/a/lei-takanashi/best-of-art-basel-miami-2023">awe than outrage</a>, perhaps because the building will soon be torn down. It elicited comparisons <a href="https://theconversation.com/what-the-5pointz-ruling-means-for-street-artists-91799">to 5Pointz</a>, a collection of former factory buildings in the Queens borough of New York City that was covered with graffiti and became a landmark before being demolished in 2014.</p>
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<h2>Meaning and motivation</h2>
<p>In the early 2000s, when I started researching street graffiti, I learned that there are different names for different graffiti types.</p>
<p>“Tags” are pseudonyms written in marker, sometimes with flourishes. “<a href="https://upmag.com/graffiti-terminology/">Fill-ins</a>” or “throw-ups” are quickly painted fat letters or bubble letters, usually outlined. “<a href="https://museumofgraffiti.com/products/subway-art">Pieces</a>” involve more colorful, complicated and stylized spray-painted letters. </p>
<p>The tradition of painting ornate graffiti names made me think of <a href="https://www.nga.gov/learn/teachers/lessons-activities/sense-of-place-france/cezanne.html">Paul Cézanne</a>, who painted the same bowl of fruit over and over. The carefully chosen names and their letters become the subject that writers use to practice their craft. </p>
<p>But I also wanted to know why people graffitied.</p>
<p>Many graffiti writers tagged spaces to declare their existence, especially in a place like New York City, where it is easy to feel invisible. Some writers who became well known in the early 1970s, like <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/23/arts/design/early-graffiti-artist-taki-183-still-lives.html">Taki 183</a>, scrawled <a href="https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1971/07/21/79680118.html?pageNumber=37">their names and street numbers all over the city</a>.</p>
<p>During my research, I spoke with one New York graffiti artist whose work had garnered a lot of attention in the 1980s. He explained that his writing had no concrete political messages. </p>
<p>“But,” he added, “the act of writing graffiti is always political.” </p>
<p>Another graffiti artist I interviewed, “PEN1,” stood with me on a street in lower Manhattan, pointing out one of his many works. It was a fill-in – huge letters near the top of a three- or four-story building, very visible from the street.</p>
<p>“Those people have paid so much money to put their message up there,” he said, pointing to nearby billboards, “and I get to put my name up there for free.” </p>
<p>Through my project, which I ended up titling “Unofficial Communication,” I came to understand that writing graffiti on walls, billboards and subway cars was a way of disrupting ideas of private ownership in public, outdoor spaces. </p>
<p>It involved three different sets of players. There were the taggers, who represented people defying the status quo. There were the public and private owners of the spaces. And there was the municipal government, which regularly cleaned graffiti from outdoor surfaces and tried to arrest taggers. </p>
<p>In cities across the U.S., then and now, it’s easy to see whose interests are the priority, whose mistakes governments are willing to overlook, and which people they aggressively police and penalize.</p>
<h2>Loud and clear</h2>
<p>The names painted on the Los Angeles skyscrapers are the faster and easier-to-complete <a href="https://www.theartblog.org/2023/01/tags-fill-ins-and-kobe-a-short-appreciation-of-graffiti-in-baltimore-and-everywhere/">fill-ins</a>, since time is at a premium and the artists risk arrest.</p>
<p>These vertical graffiti bombing projects on failed skyscrapers, deliberately or not, call attention to the millions of dollars that are absorbed by taxpayers when private developers make bad investments. </p>
<p>Because the names painted on the buildings are fill-ins, they’re not especially artistic. But they did, in fact, make a political statement. </p>
<p>A former graffiti artist who goes by “ACTUAL” told The Washington Post that he’d come out of retirement to contribute to the Los Angeles project. </p>
<p>“The money invested in [the buildings] could have done so much for this city,” <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/art/2024/02/08/los-angeles-graffiti-building/">he added</a>. </p>
<p>Some of the graffiti artists in Los Angeles were arrested, and the Los Angeles City Council <a href="https://www.costar.com/article/896685651/los-angeles-officials-start-process-that-may-lead-to-takeover-of-graffitied-skyscraper">is demanding that the owners of Oceanwide Plaza</a> remove the graffiti, described as the work of “criminals” acting “recklessly.”</p>
<p>Meanwhile, the developers of buildings that have sat, unfinished, for years, in the middle of a housing crisis, have broken no laws.</p>
<p>Some reckless acts, apparently, are more criminal than others.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/223265/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Colette Gaiter does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
The colorful bubble letters have attracted praise and condemnation, with taggers seeing their work as a gift to the city, while others decry it as rampant vandalism.
Colette Gaiter, Professor of Art and Design, University of Delaware
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/209104
2023-08-16T21:15:01Z
2023-08-16T21:15:01Z
Artificial intelligence can be used to design engaging and interactive public art
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/536724/original/file-20230711-29-7uc6gy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C33%2C4500%2C2957&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Prismatica, an art installation displayed in 2015 in Montréal's Quartier des Spectacles.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span></figcaption></figure><iframe style="width: 100%; height: 100px; border: none; position: relative; z-index: 1;" allowtransparency="" allow="clipboard-read; clipboard-write" src="https://narrations.ad-auris.com/widget/the-conversation-canada/artificial-intelligence-can-be-used-to-design-engaging-and-interactive-public-art" width="100%" height="400"></iframe>
<p>Montréal’s public art program attracts people to specific locations throughout the city, encouraging visitors to linger. This helps stimulate the economy, <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/downtown-montreal-public-spaces-economy-covid-19-1.5657502">as people often also visit nearby retailers</a>. </p>
<p>Interactive artworks in Montréal’s public spaces range from <a href="https://wireframe.ca/portfolio-item/sound-sculpture/">audiovisual sound sculptures</a> and <a href="https://www.mtl.org/en/experience/luminotherapie">light installations</a> to <a href="https://massivart.com/project/public-urban-art-installation-montreal/">engaging and playful experiences</a>. But while these installations are entertaining, there is often a certain uniformity across these different works. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.apa.org/members/content/social-media-research">The rise of social media</a> has encouraged people <a href="https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/instagrammable">to look for Instagrammable</a> experiences and TikTok-worthy content. As a result, many public art installations in Montréal have been designed with social media visuals in mind.</p>
<h2>Artificial creativity</h2>
<p>Artificial intelligence (AI) is <a href="https://www.forbes.com/advisor/business/ai-statistics/">increasingly incorporated</a> into every aspect of our lives, <a href="https://hai.stanford.edu/news/ai-will-transform-teaching-and-learning-lets-get-it-right">including education</a>, <a href="https://www.businessnewsdaily.com/9402-artificial-intelligence-business-trends.html">business</a>, <a href="https://builtin.com/artificial-intelligence/artificial-intelligence-healthcare">health</a>, <a href="https://theconversation.com/sci-fi-shows-like-westworld-and-altered-carbon-offer-a-glimpse-into-the-future-of-urban-transportation-179916">transportation</a> <a href="https://devtechnosys.com/insights/ai-in-gaming/">and entertainment</a>.</p>
<p>The art realm also benefits from what <a href="https://aelaschool.com/en/art/artificial-intelligence-art-changes/">AI has to offer</a>. Montréal has featured AI-powered artworks and continues to support arts and innovation. For instance, <a href="https://iregular.io/work/faces/"><em>Faces</em></a> by digital art studio <a href="https://iregular.io/studio/">Iregular</a> uses a facial recognition algorithm that collects images of visitors to create a continuously evolving portrait. </p>
<p>Another Iregular work, <a href="https://iregular.io/work/our-common-home/"><em>Our Common Home</em></a>, uses computer vision and AI technologies to speculate on the human impact on the planet. Their goal is <a href="https://expo2020.canada.ca/media/shaping-the-future-of-interactive-art.html">to create awareness</a> with four installations that are experienced in massive public displays. </p>
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<h2>Opportunities and dangers</h2>
<p>Public spaces can help urban residents engage with the community, make social connections and have exciting experiences. Digital technologies, when incorporated into the public realm, have the potential to reshape the <a href="https://repository.corp.at/661/">urban experience</a>. </p>
<p>Creating interactions in public space turns the urban space into a playful and social venue that could attract residents of all ages. However, there are <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-34292-9_16">challenges when designing interactive urban installations</a>. These include the potential that some people may find installations with an audio component disturbing, installations with lights may be less visible during the day and audience safety must be managed.</p>
<p>Another critical challenge is accessibility. Urban spaces should <a href="https://urbandesignlab.in/redefining-universal-design-in-public-spaces/">incorporate universal design principles</a> to support the development of <a href="https://futurecitiescanada.ca/portal/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/10/fcc-eg-publicspaces-accessible-eng--oct-2022-uae-secured.pdf">accessible and inclusive public spaces</a>.</p>
<p>Including art in public spaces also raises the question of who the decision-makers and stakeholders are. <a href="https://effetquebec.ca/en/trends/interactive-installations-in-public-spaces/">Often, a government agency commissions local artists for specifically tailored artworks</a>, but some argue for <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/artblog/2008/may/11/artinpublicspacesshouldbe">a more democratic approach</a>. <a href="https://doi.org/10.4000/belgeo.13381">Other conflicts could occur</a>, such as whether public art is the right tool to reconstruct public spaces or whether the public should contribute to the artworks.</p>
<p>Interactive installations <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-9765-3_9">can increase public engagement and create community dialogues</a>. Diverse AI technologies, such as machine learning and generative AI, can provide <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ifacol.2021.04.087">dynamic experiences in public spaces</a>.</p>
<p>AI could support the development of urban communities in terms of not only arts but also mobility, education and health care. For instance, AI can directly obtain data from the surrounding environment to create a real-time experience such as <a href="https://www.geotab.com/blog/future-of-transportation/">intelligent transportation systems</a>, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1109/SCIOT50840.2020.9250204">public interactions powered by augmented reality</a> and <a href="https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/773961">inclusive, safe and environmentally adaptive structures</a>.</p>
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<p>This can even foster learning in the public sphere. The rapidly increasing hype around AI technologies <a href="https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.825625">generates curiosity and attracts audiences</a>. Incorporating interactive installations that offer entertaining, educative and exciting experiences could contribute to more equitable and sustainable cities.</p>
<p>On the other hand, adopting AI technologies in the public realm raises issues surrounding <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.giq.2016.06.004">consent and privacy</a> and the <a href="https://www.dukeupress.edu/cloud-ethics">role of algorithms in society</a>.</p>
<h2>Interactive experiences</h2>
<p>Even though we only just started to see AI artworks in the public realm, artists and designers are already using AI’s many features, such as data generation and image processing to create unique works. Specifically, in interactive works, AI enhances the experience by creating stimulating engagements with the audience. </p>
<p>Japanese interaction designer <a href="https://www.tomokihara.com/">Tomo Kihara</a> and U.K.-based design studio <a href="https://studioplayfool.com/">Playfool</a> collaborated on <a href="https://deviationgame.com/"><em>Deviation Game</em></a>. This multimedia installation includes a digital game that prints the results. </p>
<p><em>Deviation Game</em> exemplifies a participatory engagement where players digitally interact with each other and the AI algorithm. The game requires players to describe randomly given words by drawing on a screen. The goal is to draw the figures in a way that other human players can guess, while making them incomprehensible to the AI algorithm. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/538544/original/file-20230720-15-sd93cy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="three people sitting around a projection screen, one is drawing on a tablet" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/538544/original/file-20230720-15-sd93cy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/538544/original/file-20230720-15-sd93cy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/538544/original/file-20230720-15-sd93cy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/538544/original/file-20230720-15-sd93cy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/538544/original/file-20230720-15-sd93cy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/538544/original/file-20230720-15-sd93cy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/538544/original/file-20230720-15-sd93cy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"><em>Deviation Game</em> requires players to draw images on a tablet with the aim of deceiving an AI.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(S. Maruyama)</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Another example of interactive AI work is <a href="https://infratonal.com/portfolio_page/intention/"><em>Intention</em></a> by <a href="https://infratonal.com/about-2/">French artist Louk Amidou</a>, which uses generative AI to respond to gestures. </p>
<p>It exhibits an individual engagement mode, allowing visitors to play with the digital forms. <em>Intention</em> uses AI, interaction design, digital art and electronic music to produce a multi-sensory experience.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/535636/original/file-20230704-17-u71i6.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="a photo showing a human hand reaching for a computer-generated image" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/535636/original/file-20230704-17-u71i6.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/535636/original/file-20230704-17-u71i6.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=329&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/535636/original/file-20230704-17-u71i6.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=329&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/535636/original/file-20230704-17-u71i6.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=329&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/535636/original/file-20230704-17-u71i6.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=414&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/535636/original/file-20230704-17-u71i6.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=414&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/535636/original/file-20230704-17-u71i6.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=414&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A screenshot from <em>Intention</em>, an interactive installation by French artist Louk Amidou.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(L. Amidou)</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>These two examples create unique and engaging interactive experiences by involving the audience in the creation process. </p>
<h2>Playful cities</h2>
<p>Artists and public space programmers can take certain actions to create <a href="https://doi.org/10.1109/MTS.2020.2967486">ethically and morally responsible</a> machine learning practices. Computer scientists are developing human-centred approaches to <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-5679-1_49">privacy</a> for <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neucom.2020.06.149">smart applications</a>, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1145/3408308.3427605">risk assessment tools</a>, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1108/DPRG-03-2022-0023">data-driven approaches for smart cities</a> and more. </p>
<p>It wouldn’t hurt if interactive urban installations used AI to become more playful, entertaining and even educational. It would reshape public spaces and turn them into engaging activities for locals and tourists. AI certainly promises interesting features for improving these installations, if only being designed responsibly.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/209104/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Carmela Cucuzzella receives funding from Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Burcu Olgen does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Interactive artworks are frequently seen in Montréal’s public spaces, providing sensory interactions. While these installations are entertaining in some way, there is a certain monotony in them.
Burcu Olgen, PhD Student, Research Assistant, Concordia University
Carmela Cucuzzella, Professor Design and Computation Arts, Université de Montréal
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/202476
2023-07-20T12:28:35Z
2023-07-20T12:28:35Z
A sculptor of wind explains how to make fiber dance far above city streets
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/519873/original/file-20230406-22-dv2imt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">In 2018, Echelman's sculpture 'Earthtime 1.78 Madrid' premiered in the Spanish capital.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/an-art-installation-featuring-a-net-sculpture-of-layers-of-news-photo/918590464?adppopup=true">GettyImages</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><em><a href="https://arts.mit.edu/people/janet-echelman/">Janet Echelman</a> says she never set out to be a sculptor of wind. But if you have ever explored <a href="https://www.echelman.com/project/she-changes">Porto, Portugal</a>, walked the streets of <a href="https://www.echelman.com/earthtime-korea">Gwanggyo, South Korea</a>, or passed through <a href="https://www.echelman.com/project/west-hollywood">West Hollywood</a>, you might have seen her massive iridescent sculptures of fiber floating above cities and the millions of people in them. Working closely with engineers, Echelman has spent the past 26 years of her career producing sculptures that rival the size of skyscrapers.</em> </p>
<p><em>In March, Echelman spoke at the 2023 <a href="https://www.imaginesolutionsconference.com/">Imagine Solutions Conference</a> in Naples, Florida, about her journey to becoming a sculptor, her creative process and how her sculptures have forever changed the landscapes of the cities where they ripple, dance and billow in the wind.</em></p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">Janet Echelman speaks at the 2023 Imagine Solutions Conference.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p><strong>What inspired you to create this type of art?</strong></p>
<p>I began my career as a painter. In 1997, I traveled to India as a Fulbright scholar and planned to give exhibitions around the country. I had my paints and brushes shipped to India from the U.S., but they never arrived. As the deadline for the show loomed, I had to come up with something fast. In Mahabalipuram, the Indian fishing village where I was staying, I would watch the fishermen work and reel in their mounds of netting on the beach at the end of each day. One day, it occurred to me that those nets would make excellent material for sculptures. By the end of my Fulbright year, I had created an entire series of these netted sculptures with the fishermen, called <a href="https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5bcf71640cf57d7e684e11bd/t/5c1966b78985836efb599fe2/1545168569303/Bellbottoms.pdf">the Bellbottom Series</a>, named after the popular bell-bottom pants. </p>
<p>I’ve been working to develop and refine this visual language ever since. It’s an ever-evolving challenge to go from making handmade nets on the beach with fishermen in India to creating works the scale of one or two city blocks attached to skyscrapers.</p>
<p><strong>How do you approach the engineering side of your art? How are these pieces constructed, especially given their large scale?</strong></p>
<p>Every piece is planned out digitally first. The first sketches are very simple – it’s just me with a pencil. </p>
<p>But the final design in our studio is a complete digital color 3D model. We can see how the sculpture sits in space and how it attaches to everything around it. We’re able to move around the three-dimensional site to see the work from all sides. </p>
<p>My team and I have engaged in a decade of development of original computer software to do soft-body modeling of our sculptures, which allows us to design our 3D netted forms while understanding the constraints of our craft, showing response to the forces of gravity and wind.</p>
<p>Every element – every line of twine, and every knot – is modeled in terms of its thickness, stiffness, weight and density. So it’s actually quite an endeavor to analyze such unusual structures that are both porous and fluidly moving. This is not the standard – building departments typically analyze solid buildings made of things they know, like steel and concrete – so this is really pushing everyone to work in new ways.</p>
<p>In terms of the physical construction, my sculptures appear delicate yet are incredibly strong. They have to be able to withstand winds of a Category 5 hurricane. We achieve that by using highly engineered materials, including a fiber that NASA used for the Mars Rover called <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/chemistry/ultra-high-molecular-weight-polyethylene">ultrahigh-molecular-weight polyethylene</a>, which is custom-braided into structural ropes. We use a variety of other fibers to create the braided twine for the soft layers of each sculpture. </p>
<p>The ropes are then all hand-spliced together with methods that have been used for hundreds of years to construct boats in the maritime industry. These are old human technologies passed down from generation to generation. </p>
<p>Once we have these knotted net panels, we incorporate different colors to create patterns within the work. These panels are then attached to rope structures and usually lifted into space using cranes. My team pulls them into tension so that they can withstand immense forces of nature. </p>
<p><strong>What was the hardest sculpture to create from a technical standpoint, and why?</strong></p>
<p>My commission for the <a href="https://www.echelman.com/st-petersburg-fl">St. Petersburg pier</a> in Florida titled “Bending Arc” was challenging, because it needed to withstand a Category 5 hurricane – and yet we did it. There’s <a href="https://www.wtsp.com/video/news/local/bending-arc-at-st-pete-pier-dazzles-viewers-as-hurricane-ian-moves-through-florida/67-3583713f-164d-46e2-909e-60ccf0c3132d">footage of it during Hurricane Ian</a>, and it was just dancing beautifully. </p>
<p>Hurricane testing starts in the design stages. Our detailed digital models are tested and analyzed for their capacity to withstand certain forces of wind, which, for public safety reasons, is required in order to obtain a building permit. My sculptures have to satisfy the same requirements as a skyscraper, and they can withstand the same forces as any major building. </p>
<p><strong>What are you currently working on that you’re excited about?</strong></p>
<p>I am excited to continue to explore the relationship between dance and art. In 2014, <a href="https://www.echelman.com/project/dance-collaboration-stuttgart-germany-2014">I collaborated with the Stuttgart Ballet in Germany</a> to create sculptures that dancers could interact with in their performances. </p>
<p>Since then I have worked with a choreographer and engineer at Princeton University to create a sculpture that the dancers actually enter into and interact with. Their movements cause the sculpture to move and appear as if it were a dancer itself at a larger scale. I see it as an exploration of our planet and its climate. It illustrates how the Earth and human beings are always mutually influencing one another – and yet we are not equals. </p>
<p><strong>What do you hope your art evokes in people?</strong></p>
<p>It’s important to me that each person can create their own meaning from art. They are the expert in their own experience. </p>
<p>If my work offers a moment of contemplation and allows you to feel a sense of calm and your own interconnection with the wind, sun, people and city, then that’s all I could hope for. I like how complete strangers often start talking to each other underneath the sculptures. Our cities are made up of straight lines and hard edges and my sculptures offer something completely different – they are soft and adaptable, yet they’re the same scale as skyscrapers. </p>
<p>If my art prompts people to contemplate that the world can be built in a completely different way than it always has been, if it opens up questions, then that is the most an artist could ever hope to do.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/202476/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Janet Echelman does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Artist Janet Echelman explains how she collaborates with engineers to create massive sculptures that have changed city landscapes and inspired people around the world.
Janet Echelman, Mellon Distinguished Visiting Artist, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/202230
2023-06-06T12:29:50Z
2023-06-06T12:29:50Z
A community can gentrify without losing its identity – examples from Pittsburgh, Boston and Newark of what works
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/526633/original/file-20230516-23757-xm3dyf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=26%2C16%2C3567%2C2549&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A street mural by Manuel Acevedo at Halsey Place in Newark, N.J.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.fourcornerspublicarts.org/projects#/the-gantalism-dedication-2019/ ">Anthony Alvarez</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">CC BY-NC-ND</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>How can neighborhoods gentrify without erasing their heart and voice?</p>
<p>It’s an important question to ask now, I’d suggest, since many communities across the U.S. are at risk of losing their historical identities as new people and businesses move in, displacing residents and affecting the fabric of the community. This <a href="https://www.pps.org/article/gentrification">process is known as gentrification</a>, and while a neighborhood “upgrade” can bring new vitality, diversity and opportunity, that is a win only if existing residents and businesses are not forced or priced out.</p>
<p>How to have the positive effects without the negatives isn’t obvious. President Joe Biden’s 2023 budget proposes a US$195 million increase in the Community Development Block Grant program that targets development in 100 <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/briefing-room/2022/03/30/president-bidens-fy-2023-budget-advances-equity/">underserved communities</a>. By creating infrastructure that attracts new development, some of these projects will likely support gentrification.</p>
<p>I’m an <a href="https://sasn.rutgers.edu/about-us/faculty-staff/anthony-alvarez">educator</a>, arts administrator and public policy fellow who has worked with Fortune 500 companies and exhibited my own photography nationally. I teach fine arts classes at Rutgers in Newark, New Jersey, where I was raised.</p>
<p>As an artist, I believe that it is important to preserve diverse communities with unique characteristics. Public art is one way to highlight and honor our shared spaces <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/j.0309-1317.2003.00492.x">even as we reshape them</a>. Art can help present the values that communities want to project and protect as a way of maintaining and creating great places to live.</p>
<h2>Defining spaces</h2>
<p>What makes a great place to live? </p>
<p>Or, as urban planner <a href="https://doi.org/10.1353/artv.2017.0009">Maria Rosario Jackson</a> – now serving as chair of the National Endowment for the Arts – asks: What makes “a just place where people can thrive”? </p>
<p>The answer is, many elements working together. Accessible transportation, diverse housing stock, good schools and jobs, to name a few. Places and spaces in which visitors and residents can convene and connect, be entertained, engage creatively, and find experiences that expand and challenge imaginations. </p>
<p>Public art projects are at the center of many revitalization projects, and they are crucial to the fabric and vitality of their communities. Consider as just one example <a href="https://undergroundinkblock.com/about-2">Underground at Ink Block</a> in Boston, a project that transformed an ordinary underpass into a place where neighbors come together to honor shared histories and play, connect and create community surrounded by outstanding street art. </p>
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<p>Successful projects like this one don’t just happen. Rather, urban planners and community leaders rely on proven techniques that bring them together with community members to practice what urban planners call placemaking, creative placemaking and placekeeping.</p>
<h2>First came placemaking</h2>
<p>Placemaking entered into the urban planning vocabulary in a <a href="https://www.arts.gov/about/publications/creative-placemaking">2010 white paper</a> by Ann Markusen and Anne Gadwa for The Mayors’ Institute on City Design. </p>
<p>More recently, the Project for Public Spaces published a <a href="https://uploads-ssl.webflow.com/5810e16fbe876cec6bcbd86e/6335ddc88fbf7f29ec537d49_2022%20placemaking%20booklet.pdf">Primer on Placemaking</a> in 2022 titled “What if we build our cities around places?”</p>
<p>The paper argues that successful cities need destinations: strong communities with distinct identities to help attract new residents, businesses and investment. </p>
<p>Walkable, safe, comfortable and dynamic public spaces and buildings are key components to the creation of spaces where “people want to live, work, play and learn,” as Michigan State University <a href="https://www.canr.msu.edu/news/lpis_mark_wyckoff_authors_article_on_four_different_types_of_placemaking">urban planner Mark Wyckoff argues</a>.</p>
<p>Placemaking began as an economic development strategy focusing on “<a href="https://www.brookings.edu/research/why-we-need-to-invest-in-transformative-placemaking/">economic districts</a>,” but recent shifts also call for thoughtful and <a href="https://www.brookings.edu/about-the-bass-center/">sensitive social impact</a> focusing on what residents and commuters want, like cultural activities, accessible parks, and healthy and sustainable food sold at farmers markets.</p>
<h2>Harnessing creativity</h2>
<p>Creative placemaking connects traditional economic placemaking with arts and cultural strategies. Markusen and Gadwa explain that creative placemaking involves partnering with the community to re-imagine a neighborhood while maintaining its social and cultural character. </p>
<p>Movements such as <a href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/art-terms/s/socially-engaged-practice">Socially Engaged Art</a> allow artists and community to come together in a public space that encourages conversation around a common goal. Rick Lowe’s <a href="https://projectrowhouses.org/">Project Row Houses</a> in Houston and the <a href="https://www.theastergates.com/project-items/dorchester-art-and-housing-collaborative-dahc">Dorchester Art and Housing Collaborative</a>’s Theaster Gates in Chicago are just two of many examples of this blurring of the lines between art, activism and economic development.</p>
<h2>Placekeeping</h2>
<p>More recently, the idea of placekeeping expands on these earlier concepts by recognizing that having communities at the table when revitalization projects are being planned is key to growing urban environments that have a good chance of keeping displacement at bay. Placekeeping emphasizes learning what is important to the fabric of the community and how to weave that into revitalization projects.</p>
<p>A former mayor of Oakland, California, Libby Schaaf, said <a href="https://www.cnu.org/publicsquare/2019/11/12/toward-placekeeping-how-design-dialogue-can-make-cities-better-everyone">in 2019</a>: “Placekeeping is about engaging the residents who already live in a space and allowing them to preserve the stories and culture of where they live.” </p>
<p>Oakland was one of the participants of Bloomberg Philanthropies’ <a href="https://www.bloomberg.org/press/bloomberg-philanthropies-launches-asphalt-art-initiative-providing-cities-how-to-guidance-to-transform-streets-and-public-spaces-with-artwork/">Asphalt Art Initiative</a>. This <a href="https://asphaltart.bloomberg.org/projects/">64-city program</a> has the goal of assisting “cities looking to use art and design to improve street safety, revitalize public spaces, and engage their communities.” </p>
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<p>Here in Newark, New Jersey, <a href="https://www.audible.com/about">Audible</a>, an audiobook and podcasting subsidiary of Amazon, has led a dynamic partnership with local leaders, elected officials, stakeholders, residents and artists called the <a href="https://www.archpaper.com/2022/06/newark-artist-collaboration-honors-the-citys-history-and-residents-through-13-just-unveiled-art-installations/">Newark Arts Collaboration</a>. The installation takes the form of 13 murals reflecting the vibrancy and histories of the city’s neighborhoods and the people within them. </p>
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<h2>Avoiding gentrification</h2>
<p>The best way of knowing what a community values is to ask the people who live there. </p>
<p><a href="https://nlihc.org/resource/gentrification-and-neighborhood-revitalization-whats-difference">Community benefits agreements</a> are contracts that bring community groups and stakeholders to a shared planning table. These agreements provide negotiated, binding contracts that help leverage tools such as <a href="https://www.ura.org/pages/lower-hill-lerta-greater-hill-district-neighborhood-reinvestment-fund">tax assistance programs and reinvestment funds</a> with concrete community investment plans. </p>
<p>For example, in Pittsburgh, community benefits agreements provided an opportunity for the community and developers to co-shape major revitalization projects beginning with the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v9qqXHa3Gs0&list=PL45AA4AF0740EF212&index=1">PPG arena 2008</a> and expanding with the renovation of <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/pittsburgh/news/hill-district-ura-concert-venue-lower-hill-district/">the historic New Granda Theater in 2023</a>.</p>
<p>Any anti-gentrification effort begins with an inclusive process. Under Mayor Michelle Wu, the city of Boston <a href="https://www.boston.gov/departments/arts-and-culture/allston-brighton-arts-culture-and-placekeeping">provides another example</a> of placekeeping by promising to learn “what exists, what is treasured and what contributes to the unique characteristics of Allston-Brighton,” a quickly developing neighborhood within the city.</p>
<p>Embracing the heart of the community, honoring its artistic expression, and creating access for the community was key in the development of <a href="https://www.evartscollective.com/frogtown-artwalk">Frogtown Arts Walk</a> in Los Angeles. And keeping this regeneration equitable is center to Newark’s <a href="https://newarkarts.org/newark-creates/">cultural plan</a>. </p>
<p>To quote Newark Mayor Ras Baraka: “Newark should be the place to be for artists. And, I want Newarkers to benefit from their presence.”</p>
<p><em>This story was updated to correct the number of Asphalt Initiative grants.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/202230/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Anthony Alvarez does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Art can help anchor places even as they are reshaped.
Anthony Alvarez, Lecturer of Arts, Culture & Media, Rutgers University - Newark
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/198581
2023-03-24T12:37:05Z
2023-03-24T12:37:05Z
Reaction to bronze sculpture of Coretta and Martin Luther King Jr. in Boston hasn’t been good – and that’s not bad for art that shatters conventions
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/517025/original/file-20230322-1452-42ggzh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=231%2C21%2C1797%2C1329&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The Coretta and Martin Luther King Jr. memorial sculpture at Boston Common is called 'The Embrace.' </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/embrace-the-dr-martin-luther-king-jr-memorial-sculpture-at-news-photo/1246205559?adppopup=true">Lane Turner/The Boston Globe via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>As an acclaimed photographer and conceptual artist, <a href="https://www.bostonmagazine.com/news/2023/02/28/mlk-statue-embrace-backstory/">Hank Willis Thomas</a> has grown accustomed to criticisms of his unconventional art and concepts of identity.</p>
<p>But even Thomas <a href="https://time.com/6249068/martin-luther-king-sculpture-hank-willis-thomas-interview/">had never experienced anything like</a> the reaction to his latest sculpture, designed to commemorate the lives of Coretta and Martin Luther King Jr., two of the most revered civil rights leaders in modern American history.</p>
<p>Unveiled in January 2023, the two sets of 20-foot-tall bronze arms appear floating in air and are embracing. Those who visit the statue in Boston can also walk underneath it into the space between the Kings’ arms.</p>
<p>It was in Boston after all, that the two met and fell in love.</p>
<p>Despite the intended show of mutual affection between the Kings, many of the tweets shared on national news feeds after the unveiling were crude and misinterpreted arms for other body parts. </p>
<p>Tweeters decried: “Disrespectful,” “Obscene,” “Phallic,” “Gross” and “Insulting.”</p>
<p>In the <a href="https://compactmag.com/article/a-masturbatory-homage-to-my-family">online magazine Compact</a>, Seneca Scott, a labor union activist and cousin of Coretta Scott King, depicted the sculpture, titled “The Embrace,” as a “masturbatory metal homage to my legendary family members” and an insult to Black people everywhere.</p>
<p>As <a href="https://lsa.umich.edu/ac/people/faculty/kah.html">a scholar</a> of visual culture, public memorials and race, I know these reactions to a new monument are not uncommon.</p>
<p>In fact, outrage is the common response. </p>
<h2>Shattering the idea of a conventional memorial</h2>
<p>“The Embrace” is unusual and was unveiled at a time of intense national debate about the public memorials of white men and the dismal histories of representing Black people and women. </p>
<p>Across the U.S., Confederate monuments and statues of Christopher Columbus and Teddy Roosevelt have been passionately defended – and <a href="https://www.npr.org/2021/02/23/970610428/nearly-100-confederate-monuments-removed-in-2020-report-says-more-than-700-remai">have come tumbling down</a> over the past 10 years.</p>
<p>This sculpture is both abstract and carefully detailed – the buttons on his coat and her jewelry are clearly articulated in bronze. </p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="A Black man is embracing a Black woman as both of them are smiling." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/517048/original/file-20230322-2304-nf6b9f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/517048/original/file-20230322-2304-nf6b9f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=894&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/517048/original/file-20230322-2304-nf6b9f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=894&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/517048/original/file-20230322-2304-nf6b9f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=894&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/517048/original/file-20230322-2304-nf6b9f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1123&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/517048/original/file-20230322-2304-nf6b9f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1123&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/517048/original/file-20230322-2304-nf6b9f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1123&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Martin Luther King Jr. hugs his wife, Coretta, after he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/dr-martin-luther-king-jr-hugs-his-wife-coretta-during-a-news-photo/517330412?adppopup=true">Bettmann/GettyImages</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Many of the critics complained that enormous floating arms of beloved civil rights leaders did a terrible disservice to the Kings.</p>
<p>One tweeter asked Thomas: “Why did you make it so complicated and confusing?”</p>
<p>Most memorials do their work with a few very familiar conventions – soldiers on horses, scantily clad buxom figures of liberty, and dignified men caught midstride, forever frozen in time. </p>
<p>“The Embrace” shattered those conventions – which partly explains the outrage. </p>
<p>In the past, the most respectful, most dignified way to represent a revered person was as fully dressed and standing tall.</p>
<p>“The Embrace” steps outside of memorial conventions, which is a particularly complicated thing to do when representing Black people and women. </p>
<p>Depicting Coretta Scott King without a whole body and without a face runs the risk of seeming to be part of a long practice of denying women the power and dignity of their male counterparts.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A Black man dressed in a dark suit is sitting on stairs made of stone." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/517040/original/file-20230322-14-9dq21n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/517040/original/file-20230322-14-9dq21n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/517040/original/file-20230322-14-9dq21n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/517040/original/file-20230322-14-9dq21n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/517040/original/file-20230322-14-9dq21n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/517040/original/file-20230322-14-9dq21n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/517040/original/file-20230322-14-9dq21n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Hank Willis Thomas, the artist who created ‘The Embrace,’ in Boston on June 14, 2022.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/hank-willis-thomas-the-artist-who-created-the-embrace-the-news-photo/1241421458?adppopup=true">Lane Turner/The Boston Globe via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Most women found in public memorials are symbols of liberty, peace, justice – and at least partially naked. </p>
<p>They are beautiful and aspirational, and, most notably, not powerful actual people in the world. </p>
<p>According to <a href="https://monumentlab.com/">Monument Lab</a>, a public art and history nonprofit group, there are 11 times more monuments to mermaids than congresswomen in the United States.</p>
<p>The history of representing Black men in the United States is equally disturbing.</p>
<p>Figures of them are all too rare, and when they do appear, they are generic soldiers or, more often, barechested and kneeling, nameless or enslaved. </p>
<p>The artistic choice to depict Martin Luther King Jr. without a face, without an intact body, without the dignity of a straight back, runs the risk of robbing him of the power he risked to carve out nonviolent protests in a racially hostile country.</p>
<p>An artist of Thomas’ caliber and experience knows he is taking those risks, and does so intentionally.</p>
<h2>Initial reactions change over time</h2>
<p>Some of the most beloved public art has been met with calls for a wrecking ball. </p>
<p>Lots of folks, for example, were very upset when the Vietnam Veterans Memorial was unveiled in 1982. One critic called the monument a “<a href="https://magazine.art21.org/2017/03/15/the-black-gash-of-shame-revisiting-the-vietnam-veterans-memorial-controversy/#foot-04">black gash of shame</a>.”</p>
<p>“It is an unfortunate choice of memorial,” the <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/3108969">New Republic wrote</a> at the time. “Memorials are built to give context and, possibly, meaning to suffering that is otherwise incomprehensible. … To treat the Vietnam dead like the victims of some monstrous traffic accident is more than a disservice to history; it is a disservice to the memory of the 57,000.”</p>
<p>Designed by <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Maya-Lin">Maya Lin</a>, the memorial <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/kidspost/2022/11/08/vietnam-veterans-memorial-40-years/">has now become</a> one of the most cherished pieces of public art in the U.S.</p>
<p>Even the Eiffel Tower <a href="https://www.csmonitor.com/Books/chapter-and-verse/2015/1120/How-the-Eiffel-Tower-outlasted-its-critics">was considered an eyesore</a> by high-minded Paris art critics, some of whom described it as no more than a railroad bridge turned on its side when it was finished in 1889.</p>
<p>Willis is no stranger to criticisms. In fact, he embraces it.</p>
<p>“My belief,” he told Time magazine in a <a href="https://time.com/6249068/martin-luther-king-sculpture-hank-willis-thomas-interview/">January 2023 interview</a> “is artists learn through critique. There’s things that we love that over time we get tired of, and there’s things that we’re not quite sure about at the beginning, but over time, we love.”</p>
<p>Such was the case in Philadelphia in 2017, when he unveiled his 8-foot-tall, 800-pound sculpture of an Afro pick topped with a clenched-fist, Black Power salute. </p>
<p>Officially called “<a href="https://monumentlab.com/projects/hank-willis-thomas-all-power-to-all-people">All Power to All People</a>,” the statue rests near Philadelphia City Hall on Thomas Paine Plaza and received initial rebukes but eventual praise.</p>
<h2>Public art that has something to say</h2>
<p>But one crucial idea is missing from most of the criticisms of “The Embrace.”</p>
<p>In my view, memorials and monuments are not actually made to mark a shared history or to maintain the status quo, as some have argued. It’s my belief that the people who build and design them have a point they want to make in the world.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A statue of arms and hands has a space underneath where visitors can walk." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/514297/original/file-20230308-28-ewpuxm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/514297/original/file-20230308-28-ewpuxm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/514297/original/file-20230308-28-ewpuxm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/514297/original/file-20230308-28-ewpuxm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/514297/original/file-20230308-28-ewpuxm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/514297/original/file-20230308-28-ewpuxm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/514297/original/file-20230308-28-ewpuxm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Another view of ‘The Embrace’ shows the space underneath the statue.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/embrace-the-dr-martin-luther-king-jr-memorial-sculpture-at-news-photo/1246205254?adppopup=true">Craig F. Walker/The Boston Globe via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The <a href="https://encyclopediavirginia.org/entries/united-daughters-of-the-confederacy/">United Daughters of the Confederacy</a> had a vision in 1890 when it unveiled the sculpture of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee riding atop his horse Traveller in Richmond, Virginia. </p>
<p>And Thomas had his vision for “The Embrace.” </p>
<p>The magic of memorials and monuments is that they seem natural and eternal in our landscape but they are neither.</p>
<p>What Thomas does in “The Embrace” is ask us to see the Kings, simply yet powerfully, in a new light.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/198581/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Kristin Ann Hass does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
A memorial to Coretta Scott and Martin Luther King Jr. has received stinging criticisms, but time will tell whether ‘The Embrace’ will endure as a cherished work of public art.
Kristin Ann Hass, Professor of American Culture, University of Michigan
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/193218
2022-11-09T02:42:23Z
2022-11-09T02:42:23Z
This new ‘risky’ playground is a work of art – and a place for kids to escape their mollycoddling parents
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/493846/original/file-20221107-15-hw0mzq.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=6%2C0%2C4019%2C3017&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Mike Hewson</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Imagine this: a heap of colourful plastic buckets stacked on top of each other to form a climbable bridge, monolithic bluestone boulders holding up a contorted slide, a pile of concrete demolition debris moonlighting as a resting spot. </p>
<p>At every point, children can be seen swinging their bodies from warped, dented monkey bars and balancing along rope-webs strung between stones.</p>
<p>Would you let your kids come here and play? </p>
<p>This new playground in Melbourne’s Southbank is the work of artist Mike Hewson. The project can be confusing for the public. Is it a playground? A sculpture? Or an unfinished piece of infrastructure?</p>
<p>Hewson’s playable public art parks in Sydney and Melbourne are known to be “<a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-11-07/risk-play-playground-city-of-melbourne-not-dangerous-safe/101622592">risky</a>” – but risk means different things to different people. And it’s exactly the risks his art takes that makes it so valuable.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1589357985792667648"}"></div></p>
<h2>The risk of no risk</h2>
<p>Urban play has long been synonymous with the <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/32893804_The_Ludic_city_Exploring_the_potential_of_public_spaces">cultural life of art and the city</a>. In the decades of Europe’s baby boom, new playground concepts emerged with a focus on “free play” (distinct from earlier playgrounds resembling <a href="https://rarehistoricalphotos.com/dangerous-playgrounds-1900s/">open-air gymnasiums</a>), as one of children’s fundamental needs.</p>
<p>“Tufsen”, Egon Möller-Nielsen’s unusual sculpture was the first unscripted <a href="https://digitaltmuseum.se/011015020013/konstnaren-egon-moller-nielsens-lekskulptur-tuffsen-med-barn">free play sculpture</a> of its kind, created in 1949, bringing together abstract art and play in a public space. </p>
<p>This new approach generated a boom in playground sculptures.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/494286/original/file-20221108-24-gaqspe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Kids play on a concrete sculpture." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/494286/original/file-20221108-24-gaqspe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/494286/original/file-20221108-24-gaqspe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=455&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/494286/original/file-20221108-24-gaqspe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=455&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/494286/original/file-20221108-24-gaqspe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=455&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/494286/original/file-20221108-24-gaqspe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=572&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/494286/original/file-20221108-24-gaqspe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=572&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/494286/original/file-20221108-24-gaqspe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=572&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Egon Möller-Nielsen’s Tufsen in Stockholm was the first free-play sculpture.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Sune Sundahl</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In the early 1980s, we saw a significant shift in response to questions of risk, hazards and children’s safety, which resulted in <a href="https://celos.ca/wiki/uploads/CityParks/PlaygroundSafetyWhitePaper-Kids-n-Safe-Play-CJD.pdf">fears and threats of litigation</a>. </p>
<p>As play-safety standards were introduced in Australia, the United States and the United Kingdom, <a href="https://www.transfer-arch.com/playground-project/">innovation</a> in the arena of a playable public realm slowed. As soon as the standards began to be referenced in liability cases, playspace designers began to follow them. </p>
<p>Designs outside the specifications were avoided and playgrounds were standardised into the <a href="https://www.vox.com/videos/2019/2/21/18229434/risky-playground-design">“boring” versions</a> that still dominate most of our play spaces, where the potential movement of children is scripted: up, across and down.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/493830/original/file-20221107-17-9gc6d8.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="This playground seems to be balancing on boulders." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/493830/original/file-20221107-17-9gc6d8.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/493830/original/file-20221107-17-9gc6d8.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/493830/original/file-20221107-17-9gc6d8.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/493830/original/file-20221107-17-9gc6d8.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/493830/original/file-20221107-17-9gc6d8.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/493830/original/file-20221107-17-9gc6d8.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/493830/original/file-20221107-17-9gc6d8.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The new playground at Melbourne’s Southbank doesn’t look like the playgrounds of your childhood.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Mike Hewson</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Over the past 30 years, interpretations of <a href="https://www.standards.org.au/news/new-australian-standard-for-playground-safety">these safety standards</a> continue to regularly confuse the meanings of “risk” and “hazard”.
A risk is something the child is aware of, forcing them to identify, analyse and overcome the challenge; a hazard puts one in danger because a condition for injury exists the user cannot perceive.</p>
<p>Conflating these meanings has resulted in a cultural attitude toward play that is <a href="https://www.academia.edu/1479806/Risk_deficit_disorder">highly risk-averse</a>. </p>
<p>This risk-aversion is in contrast to the mounting research on the <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3499858/">benefits of risk</a> for children. </p>
<p>Risk-aversion can have <a href="https://researchdirect.westernsydney.edu.au/islandora/object/uws:50781/">long-term health implications</a> on adolescence and into adulthood, potentially impacting the development of anxiety, depression, obesity and diabetes.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/493834/original/file-20221107-25-tyv924.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="This playground seems to be built of plastic buckets." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/493834/original/file-20221107-25-tyv924.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/493834/original/file-20221107-25-tyv924.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/493834/original/file-20221107-25-tyv924.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/493834/original/file-20221107-25-tyv924.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/493834/original/file-20221107-25-tyv924.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/493834/original/file-20221107-25-tyv924.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/493834/original/file-20221107-25-tyv924.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Hewson is also behind Pockets Park in Leichhardt, Sydney.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Mike Hewson</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In fact, researchers Jonathan Haidt and Pamela Paresky <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/jan/10/by-mollycoddling-our-children-were-fuelling-mental-illness-in-teenagers">suggest</a> contemporary society “mollycoddles” children. The risk-of-no-risk is a question of resilience – not only physical but also, perhaps more importantly, <a href="https://www.apa.org/topics/resilience">psychological resilience</a>. </p>
<p>Psychological resilience is the capacity for adaptation in the face of tragedy, trauma, adversity, threats or significant stress. Put simply, resilience is the ability to “bounce back” from challenging experiences. </p>
<p>Based on this premise, Hewson’s “risky” sculptural play environments can bolster, fortify and increase psychological resilience among children. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/493835/original/file-20221107-25-71diu3.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A kid climbs on a brick wall." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/493835/original/file-20221107-25-71diu3.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/493835/original/file-20221107-25-71diu3.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/493835/original/file-20221107-25-71diu3.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/493835/original/file-20221107-25-71diu3.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/493835/original/file-20221107-25-71diu3.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/493835/original/file-20221107-25-71diu3.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/493835/original/file-20221107-25-71diu3.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">These playgrounds can bolster psychological resilience.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Mike Hewson</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In contrast to the conventional playground where movement is predetermined, Hewson’s projects offer children the opportunity to explore unfamiliar, unscripted, innovative and playable sculptural worlds. </p>
<p>When given the chance, even very young children <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.7721/chilyoutenvi.25.2.0301">show clear abilities</a> to negotiate unfamiliar spaces, manage risks and determine their own limitations.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/giant-tube-slides-and-broken-legs-why-the-latest-playground-craze-is-a-serious-hazard-181073">Giant tube slides and broken legs: why the latest playground craze is a serious hazard</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Playable sculpture</h2>
<p>Hewson’s sculptural playgrounds don’t just offer the opportunity for children to take risks. Their very construction appears to be risky: all playable parts appear to be improvised, cobbled together with cardboard and chicken wire, balanced just-so or teetering on the verge of collapse.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/494310/original/file-20221109-9155-zrdnlv.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A girl climbs in a cage on a boulder." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/494310/original/file-20221109-9155-zrdnlv.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/494310/original/file-20221109-9155-zrdnlv.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/494310/original/file-20221109-9155-zrdnlv.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/494310/original/file-20221109-9155-zrdnlv.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/494310/original/file-20221109-9155-zrdnlv.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/494310/original/file-20221109-9155-zrdnlv.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/494310/original/file-20221109-9155-zrdnlv.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Hewson’s sculptures seem like they’re teetering on the verge of collapse.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Mike Hewson</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>And yet nothing is quite as it appears. With Hewson’s background in engineering, each playable element has been meticulously designed, structurally engineered and thoughtfully integrated into the urban realm. </p>
<p>This illusion of danger gives the works a sense of the uncanny, appealing to art-lovers and children alike. </p>
<p>In the art world, Hewson’s works are <a href="https://www.artlink.com.au/articles/4930/unfettered-actions-sportification-playgrounds-and-/">important</a> for their bold and cheeky irreverence of the traditions of public art. </p>
<p>By making these sculptures playable – and seemingly defective – they tip the hierarchy of “art” upside down. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/493841/original/file-20221107-3517-uc8m3a.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A kid swings on warped monkey bars." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/493841/original/file-20221107-3517-uc8m3a.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/493841/original/file-20221107-3517-uc8m3a.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/493841/original/file-20221107-3517-uc8m3a.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/493841/original/file-20221107-3517-uc8m3a.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/493841/original/file-20221107-3517-uc8m3a.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/493841/original/file-20221107-3517-uc8m3a.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/493841/original/file-20221107-3517-uc8m3a.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">This might look broken – but it’s highly engineered.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Mike Hewson</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Australia has a long-standing reputation of presenting “<a href="https://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/art-and-design/public-art-and-social-history-is-the-monument-dead-20141211-122bzf.html">plonk art</a>” in public spaces. Plonk art is a pejorative slang term for the large Modernist artworks intended for government plazas, corporate atriums and open parks designed to be looked at but not touched. </p>
<p>Hewson takes sculpture off its pedestal and integrates it directly into the public domain, while also engaging local communities in the creative development stages of his projects. </p>
<p>For this experimentation, he receives some <a href="https://www.theage.com.au/national/nsw/trying-to-push-the-conversation-the-inner-west-playground-dividing-parents-20220211-p59vm8.html">backlash</a> from certain sections of the community – but his convictions keep him pushing forward.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/493826/original/file-20221107-25-7m89vo.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Hewson's packed playground." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/493826/original/file-20221107-25-7m89vo.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/493826/original/file-20221107-25-7m89vo.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/493826/original/file-20221107-25-7m89vo.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/493826/original/file-20221107-25-7m89vo.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/493826/original/file-20221107-25-7m89vo.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/493826/original/file-20221107-25-7m89vo.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/493826/original/file-20221107-25-7m89vo.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">We need to give kids space to take risks.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Mike Hewson</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>His works advance the role of public art in creating a more culturally rich, intergenerational public domain while also challenging conventions of the ubiquitous de-risked playground.</p>
<p>So what do you think? Is it time we integrate more playable art opportunities into the public realm?</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/bringing-art-into-public-spaces-can-improve-the-social-fabric-of-a-city-162991">Bringing art into public spaces can improve the social fabric of a city</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/193218/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Sanné Mestrom receives funding from the Australian Research Council. </span></em></p>
The new playground in Melbourne’s Southbank is the work of artist Mike Hewson – and it’s exactly the ‘risk’ it proposes that makes it so valuable.
Sanné Mestrom, Senior Lecturer, DECRA Fellow, Sydney College of the Arts, University of Sydney
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/184847
2022-06-13T13:44:36Z
2022-06-13T13:44:36Z
Grenfell Tower: the difficult task of creating a fitting memorial to the tragedy
<p>In the days and weeks after the 2017 <a href="https://theconversation.com/grenfell-tower-disaster-how-did-the-fire-spread-so-quickly-79445">Grenfell Tower tragedy</a>, in which 72 people lost their lives in a fire that consumed the 24-storey residential block in North Kensington, London, dozens of memorials appeared in the vicinity of the building. People brought flowers and pictures and green ribbons. They made hearts and mosaics. They painted graffiti. They went on silent walks. </p>
<p>Five years on, many of these spontaneous creations are still there. They speak powerfully to the pain and loss in the community. But through lack of maintenance and ownership, or simply because they were not designed to withstand the elements and the passing of time, they are already showing signs of decay. The risk of their disappearing entirely comes with the fear that the memory of what happened will be lost too.</p>
<p>This is why, in 2019, the Grenfell Tower memorial commission was created. The purpose was to formalise how the site would be remembered and to ensure the community is <a href="https://theconversation.com/social-housing-tenants-need-their-voices-heard-heres-how-to-make-it-happen-130265">heard</a>. </p>
<p>In May 2022, the commission published <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-61456786">an interim report</a> entitled Remembering Grenfell: Our Journey So Far. It relays the breadth of ideas and concerns expressed to date, over what form this memorial should take.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1877916621000497">Research shows</a> that collectively remembering a difficult past in this way – via a structure or object intended to endure – is not an easy task. For a memorial to serve its purpose, it needs to be peaceful and reflective. It needs to promote <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-remembering-matters-for-healing-94565">remembrance</a>, hope and community. Respect is fundamental. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A green-painted section of wall with a floral mosaic, floral tributes and written messages." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/468412/original/file-20220613-22566-dxwwmn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/468412/original/file-20220613-22566-dxwwmn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/468412/original/file-20220613-22566-dxwwmn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/468412/original/file-20220613-22566-dxwwmn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/468412/original/file-20220613-22566-dxwwmn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/468412/original/file-20220613-22566-dxwwmn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/468412/original/file-20220613-22566-dxwwmn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">CAPTION.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/north-kensingtonlondon-july-18-2019-memorial-1611582916">JessicaGirvan | Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>How to create a fitting memorial</h2>
<p>The Grenfell Tower memorial commission represents three main communities: bereaved family members; survivors of the fire; and residents of the Lancaster West Estate, in which the tower stands. With the help of public engagement company Kaizen, it has sought to reach as many people as possible – via recorded conversations, online community meetings and weekend drop-in sessions – and will continue to do so until January 2023. </p>
<p>A design brief will then be developed in order to open a public competition between April 2023 and April 2024. The plan is to start building the memorial by December 2024. </p>
<p>So far, as the report relays, about 20% of bereaved individuals, 6.2% former residents of Grenfell tower and Grenfell Walk (who have now been fully relocated to new homes) and 28% of the residents of the wider Lancaster housing estate, have already shared their views. This is a good starting point. </p>
<p>With over 2,000 participants, recognising the views of all those affected, and co-designing something that encompasses all those views, is a challenge. As the report’s authors put it, “part of the way forward might be to accept that we cannot make all the pain go away or make it better.” </p>
<p>Many bereaved family members are still grieving and are simply not ready to engage in the memorial design. The commission is nonetheless adamant to “never make a decision by numbers, without thinking through whether it meets the needs of bereaved families as well as others.” The silence of these community members should also be part of the remembrance process. </p>
<p>The site of the memorial will become a sacred space, a place where the remains of the victims that were not identified will be put to rest and a place where those who were can be honoured by their families.</p>
<p>The report speaks to people’s hopes that the memorial will materialise the pain of families and also their collective determination that this never happen again. “Justice,” the authors write, “is incredibly important to the Grenfell community.”</p>
<p>Ultimately, the aim is is that the site become a beacon to ensure the nation does not forget this shameful episode. And that it never be used as housing again. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A shot of a high-rise building that has been burned." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/468410/original/file-20220613-47433-deifyq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/468410/original/file-20220613-47433-deifyq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/468410/original/file-20220613-47433-deifyq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/468410/original/file-20220613-47433-deifyq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/468410/original/file-20220613-47433-deifyq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/468410/original/file-20220613-47433-deifyq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/468410/original/file-20220613-47433-deifyq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The tower stands as a constant reminder of the tragedy.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/london-united-kingdom-june-24-2017-666265843">dominika zara | Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>The shapes the memorial could take</h2>
<p>In keeping with other <a href="https://theconversation.com/memorials-that-go-beyond-boring-statues-of-big-men-on-bronze-horses-65069">memorial</a> projects around the world, the participants have highlighted several key notions that should underpin the design: peaceful and reflective; respect and remembrance; hope and positivity; community and love. The report shows how these ideas are being kept front and centre:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Perhaps through art, our disappointment, anger, fear, guilt and sorrow could find a place of respect at the heart of the memorial, rather than being silenced or pushed to the side. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>Three options for the structure itself are being explored: a garden (potentially with a water feature and a children’s play area); an artwork or monument; or a building. </p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.proquest.com/docview/2314682435?pq-origsite=gscholar&fromopenview=true">National Memorial Arboretum</a>, in Staffordshire, which is the UK’s centre of remembrance for fallen servicepeople, shows how gardens can provide the quiet people need for reflection. Being in nature – to experience the seasons and the passing of time – also brings a sense of hope and positive thoughts about the future. Research also shows that <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/0277953692903603">landscapes designed to be therapeutic</a> may help with the grieving process.</p>
<p>Artworks and monuments have been shown to be effective memorials, too, particularly when they include information about those who lost their lives. To <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1877916621000497">memorialise those who died</a> during Argentina’s military dictatorship (1976-1983), the Park of Memory was created in 2004 and comprises a garden and memorials, with the names of all the disappeared inscribed on long walls. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Two small children touch a long wall on which thousands of names are inscribed." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/468424/original/file-20220613-41411-323m9r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/468424/original/file-20220613-41411-323m9r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/468424/original/file-20220613-41411-323m9r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/468424/original/file-20220613-41411-323m9r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/468424/original/file-20220613-41411-323m9r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/468424/original/file-20220613-41411-323m9r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/468424/original/file-20220613-41411-323m9r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Those who disappeared in Argentina’s military dictatorship are remembered, by name, in the Park of Memory.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/memory-park-buenos-aires-argentina-716721217">J GONZALEZ | Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The Grenfell commission’s report highlights that there is no consensus yet about how much information could be used in the memorial, be it in the form of pictures or personal stories. </p>
<p>Few people were in favour of a building, potentially a museum, since this could bring tourists to the area and adversely impact the peacefulness of the memorial. But <a href="http://irep.ntu.ac.uk/id/eprint/33181/">as my research shows, </a> combining the authenticity of a historic site with the pedagogical aspect of memory can work. The Otto Weidt Museum in Berlin combines the factory in which Weidt, a pacifist factory owner, tried to help Jewish workers escape from the Gestapo, with a documentation centre located next door. </p>
<p>Some people have suggested a separate exhibition on the Grenfell disaster, to be held at the Museum of London. Separating out the spaces for reflection and for education is a common solution, as has been done Buenos Aires. The main memorial museum is located not in the Park of Memory but in the former ESMA building, the Argentine army mechanics school and clandestine torture centre.</p>
<p>The Grenfell Tower memorial commission has no bearing on the future of the tower itself – on whether it is kept or demolished – as this is the government’s responsibility. </p>
<p>The tower is a constant reminder of the tragedy. For many it causes a huge strain on their mental health. Bereaved families, former and current residents in the area may need more time. Some may never be ready to talk about how to memorialise this tragedy. </p>
<p>A distinct memorial, whichever form it takes, will be a place for all, to remember and to fight for justice, devised in a truly grassroots manner. I encourage you to read the commission’s report in full. The challenge it has taken on is as sad and difficult as it is laudable. And its members are in it for the long haul.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/184847/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ana Souto does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Designing a memorial that helps the community grieve and heal is no easy task.
Ana Souto, Senior Lecturer in Architectural History, Nottingham Trent University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/173625
2022-02-15T13:49:16Z
2022-02-15T13:49:16Z
Old statues of Confederate generals are slowly disappearing – will monuments honoring people of color replace them?
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/445505/original/file-20220209-13-1pvibsn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=751%2C60%2C3722%2C4412&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The monument 'Rumors of War' depicts a young African American in urban streetwear sitting atop a horse.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/the-monument-rumors-of-war-is-unveiled-in-times-square-on-news-photo/1177509058">Spencer Platt/Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>With most of the <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2021/11/23/charlottesville-verdict-live-updates/">legal challenges resolved</a> after the violent <a href="https://time.com/charlottesville-white-nationalist-rally-clashes/">Unite the Right rally</a>, and the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/09/us/charlottesville-confederate-monuments-lee.html">statue of Robert E. Lee removed</a> from its lofty pedestal in downtown Charlottesville, Virginia, local lawmakers in December 2021 voted to do the unimaginable – donate the statue to the local <a href="https://jeffschoolheritagecenter.org/">Jefferson School African American Heritage Center</a>. </p>
<p>In turn, the nonprofit cultural group quickly announced its plan to <a href="https://www.cbs19news.com/story/45391966/jefferson-school-will-melt-lee-statue-by-february-2022">melt down the bronze statue</a> and use it as raw material for a new public artwork. What the group plans to build is still an open question, but it clearly will not be another statue honoring the <a href="https://encyclopediavirginia.org/entries/lost-cause-the/#start_entry">Lost Cause</a> of the Confederacy, the idea that slavery was a benevolent institution and the Confederate cause was just.</p>
<p>As part of America’s reckoning with its oppressive past, Charlottesville and the rest of the nation face the question of not just which statues and other images should be taken down, but what else – if anything – should be put up in their place.</p>
<p>Statues of Black Americans – and, more importantly, their absence – are an often overlooked barometer of racial progress, hidden in plain sight. Despite their silence, statues are active portraits that can reinforce the value and visibility of Black Americans. The <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/global-race-usa-statues-idINKBN2601O5">lack of Black statues</a> sends a clear message of exclusion.</p>
<p>For its part, the Jefferson School African American Heritage Center wants to be not only more inclusive in the decision-making involved in determining the future of the Lee statue, but also transformative. </p>
<p>“Our aim is not to destroy an object, it’s to transform it,” <a href="https://www.wvtf.org/2021-12-09/black-heritage-museum-reenvisions-charlottesvilles-statue-of-confederate-gen-robert-e-lee">Andrea Douglas</a>, the center’s executive director, explained. “It’s to use the very raw material of its original making and create something that is more representative of the alleged democratic values of this community, more inclusive of those voices that in 1920 had no ability to engage in the artistic process at all.”</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Construction workers use heavy-duty chains to remove a statue." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/445492/original/file-20220209-15-6ngyxb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/445492/original/file-20220209-15-6ngyxb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/445492/original/file-20220209-15-6ngyxb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/445492/original/file-20220209-15-6ngyxb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/445492/original/file-20220209-15-6ngyxb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/445492/original/file-20220209-15-6ngyxb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/445492/original/file-20220209-15-6ngyxb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A statue of Confederate general Robert E Lee is lifted off its pedestal in Charlottesville, Va.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/statue-of-confederate-general-robert-e-lee-located-in-news-photo/1233936650?adppopup=true">John McDFor their partonnell/The Washington Post via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Most important, she said, the group wants to “<a href="https://www.cnn.com/2021/12/08/us/charlottesville-lee-statue-melted-trnd/index.html">turn it into something that can cause our community to heal</a>.”</p>
<h2>History of exclusion</h2>
<p>As a <a href="https://honors.tcu.edu/faculty/dr-frederick-w-gooding/">professor of pop culture history</a> who studies Black statues within mainstream society, I believe Charlottesville is not the only city in need of healing. With more questions being asked about today’s relevance of Confederate statues, Americans must also ask critical questions about the role of statues in reflecting present morals and future ideals. </p>
<p>While not uncommon to spot statues of accomplished Black athletes, such as <a href="https://www.baltimoreravens.com/video/ray-lewis-statue-unveiled-at-m-t-bank-stadium">Ray Lewis</a> in Baltimore, <a href="https://www.unitedcenter.com/venue/statues/">Michael Jordan</a> in Chicago or <a href="https://www.espn.com/boston/nba/story/_/id/9914066/statue-boston-celtics-great-bill-russell-unveiled-boston">Bill Russell</a> in Boston, it’s much more rare to find Black Americans memorialized outside of the sports and entertainment industries. </p>
<p>With few new exceptions, public and prominent statues of Blacks people are nonexistent. </p>
<p>The public art and history nonprofit group <a href="https://monumentlab.com/">Monument Lab</a> conducted a survey in 2021 of 48,178 statues, plaques, parks and obelisks across the United States. In its report, the group found that less than 1% were of people of color. </p>
<p>Of the top 50 most-represented individuals, the survey revealed that only five are Black or Indigenous people: civil rights leader <a href="https://www.nps.gov/mlkm/index.htm">Martin Luther King Jr.</a> in fourth place; abolitionist and Underground Railroad leader <a href="https://www.inquirer.com/news/philadelphia/harriet-tubman-statue-philadelphia-black-history-month-exhibit-20220111.html">Harriet Tubman</a> in 24th; Shawnee chief Tecumseh, who led Native American resistance to colonialism, in 25th; Lemhi Shoshone explorer <a href="https://www.nps.gov/articles/sacagawea-statue-in-portland-or.htm">Sacagawea</a> in 28th; and abolitionist and writer <a href="https://www.nycgovparks.org/parks/central-park/monuments/2098">Frederick Douglass</a> in 29th. </p>
<p>More than likely, that percentage will remain the same for the foreseeable future – even with the recent wave of removing controversial statues in 2020 and 2021.</p>
<p>Since May 2020, the <a href="https://www.toppledmonumentsarchive.org/">Toppled Monuments Archive</a> has detailed <a href="https://www.toppledmonumentsarchive.org/the-collective">84 such removals</a> of “colonialist, imperialist, racist and sexist monuments” <a href="https://www.artpapers.org/monumental-collapse/">in North America</a>. In addition, the Southern Poverty Law Center’s <a href="https://www.splcenter.org/20190201/whose-heritage-public-symbols-confederacy">Whose Heritage? Project</a> says that if other Confederate symbols are included, such as institution names and publicly displayed plaques, a more accurate number is that <a href="https://www.splcenter.org/news/2022/02/04/cost-remove-confederate-monument-south">168 were taken down in 2020</a>.</p>
<h2>A changing landscape</h2>
<p>Not a single statue was built to honor the legacy of a Black person until 1974, when the likeness of <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/1974/07/11/archives/20000-at-unveiling-of-statue-to-mary-bethune-in-capital-a-fine.html">famed educator Mary McCleod Bethune</a> became the first Black statue ever <a href="https://washington.org/find-dc-listings/emancipation-memorial-freedmans-memorial">erected on federal lands</a>. The <a href="https://www.nps.gov/mlkm/index.htm">Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial</a> on the National Mall was not installed until in 2011. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A statue of a Black woman giving a loaf of bread to two children." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/445496/original/file-20220209-27-1eohu7i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/445496/original/file-20220209-27-1eohu7i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=434&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/445496/original/file-20220209-27-1eohu7i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=434&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/445496/original/file-20220209-27-1eohu7i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=434&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/445496/original/file-20220209-27-1eohu7i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=545&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/445496/original/file-20220209-27-1eohu7i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=545&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/445496/original/file-20220209-27-1eohu7i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=545&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A view of the Mary McLeod Bethune statue in Lincoln Park in Washington.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/view-of-the-mary-mcleod-bethune-statue-in-lincoln-park-in-news-photo/474111719?adppopup=true">Linda Davidson/The Washington Post via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Bethune’s statue stands in stark contrast to a nearby statue in Washington’s Lincoln Park. The <a href="https://washington.org/find-dc-listings/emancipation-memorial-freedmans-memorial">Freedman’s Memorial</a>, erected in 1922, immortalizes Abraham Lincoln standing clothed and erect, while a bare-chested Black man with broken chains around his wrists kneels at Lincoln’s feet. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.pbs.org/newshour/nation/protesters-demand-removal-of-statues-depicting-freed-black-american-kneeling-before-lincoln">Tensions over this controversial symbol</a> led to the removal of a similar statue in Boston <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/29/us/boston-abraham-lincoln-statue.html">on Dec. 29, 2020</a>. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A statue of a man standing near another man on his knees." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/445499/original/file-20220209-13-ma85n7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/445499/original/file-20220209-13-ma85n7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/445499/original/file-20220209-13-ma85n7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/445499/original/file-20220209-13-ma85n7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/445499/original/file-20220209-13-ma85n7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/445499/original/file-20220209-13-ma85n7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/445499/original/file-20220209-13-ma85n7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Freedmen’s Memorial depicts President Abraham Lincoln freeing an enslaved man.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/conservative-african-american-leaders-rally-and-call-on-news-photo/1227127010?adppopup=true">Marvin Joseph/The Washington Post via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Public statues represent significant expenditures of time, money and political capital, especially with more than US$2 million and four years of legal battles spent on the Robert E. Lee statue’s removal in Charlottesville.</p>
<p>[<em>Understand key political developments, each week.</em> <a href="https://memberservices.theconversation.com/newsletters/?nl=politics&source=inline-politics-understand">Subscribe to The Conversation’s politics newsletter</a>.]</p>
<p>Public art is widely viewed as a tool to tell a more complete and honest narrative. As noted in the key findings of the Monuments Lab Audit: <a href="https://monumentlab.com/audit?section=key-finding-4">Monuments should be held accountable to history</a>. “Monuments that perpetuate harmful myths and that portray conquest and oppression as acts of valor require honest reckoning, conceptual dismantling, and active repair,” the audit concluded. </p>
<p>Part of the repair is occurring in Charlottesville and in Richmond, Virginia, where most notably <a href="https://www.npr.org/2020/06/25/878822835/rumors-of-war-in-richmond-marks-a-monumentally-unequal-america">“Rumors of War”</a>, featuring a Black man in dreds and urban streetwear atop a powerful horse, stands near the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts.</p>
<p>As with Charlottesville, Americans can reject the notion that our future, as now represented in public statues, is permanently fixed in stone. Perhaps when it comes to our existing statues, it is time to consider what we can melt down in other places and forge anew.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/173625/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Frederick Gooding Jr. does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
With a few notable exceptions, public monuments across the United States are overwhelmingly white and male. A movement is slowly growing to tell a more inclusive history of the American experience.
Frederick Gooding Jr., Dr. Ronald E. Moore Professor of Humanities and African American Studies, Texas Christian University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/174897
2022-01-14T06:36:38Z
2022-01-14T06:36:38Z
Remembering Louis Maqhubela, pioneering and enigmatic South African painter
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/440661/original/file-20220113-27-an5cb3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Artist Louis Maqhubela and his wife Tana passed away within days of one another.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Image courtesy the Maqhubela family</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The pioneering South African artist <a href="https://www.artfirst.co.uk/louis_maqhubela/biography.html">Louis Khehla Maqhubela</a> passed away on 6 November 2021 at St Thomas’ hospital in London, UK, a few days before his wife Tana Maqhubela also passed. He leaves behind an important and iconic legacy. </p>
<p>He created a bridge for South Africa’s urban, black ‘township artists’ of the 1950s, 60s and 70s. The move that he offered away from prescriptive expressionism and into internationalist styles and concerns can hardly be overestimated.</p>
<h2>Early years</h2>
<p>Maqhubela was born in Durban, South Africa, in 1939. His parents moved to Johannesburg in 1949, while he and his sisters were sent to live with their aunt in the rural town of Matatiele in the country’s Eastern Cape province, until they joined their parents three years later. </p>
<p>Maqhubela was a member of artist and teacher <a href="https://www.sahistory.org.za/people/durant-basi-sihlali">Durant Sihlali’s</a> weekend artists group from 1955 to 1957. From 1957 to 1959, while still at school in Soweto, he studied under the direction of <a href="https://www.sahistory.org.za/people/cecil-edwin-frans-skotnes">Cecil Skotnes</a> – known for his painted and incised wooden panels, woodblock prints, tapestries and sculpture – and sculptor <a href="https://www.sahistory.org.za/people/sydney-kumalo">Sydney Kumalo</a> at the <a href="https://www.sahistory.org.za/archive/polly-street-era">Polly Street Art Centre</a>. The centre was housed in a hall in Johannesburg and focused on black art students. It exhibited artists of all races, defying the racial segregation of the white minority government’s <a href="https://www.sahistory.org.za/article/history-apartheid-south-africa">apartheid</a> policy that saw black citizens moved into townships outside of cities.</p>
<p>Maqhubela started work as a commercial artist but from 1960 he was commissioned to create paintings and mosaics in hospitals, schools, halls and bar lounges in and around <a href="https://www.sahistory.org.za/place/soweto-johannesburg">Soweto</a> township. Skotnes facilitated a commission to create four large-scale oil paintings for public buildings. The only extant one is <em>Township Scene</em> (1961). </p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/440753/original/file-20220113-17-1caja3l.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A painting with many brightly dressed figures from behind, women with children, carrying goods on their heads, a man on a bike, dogs playing, trees, a truck and small houses." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/440753/original/file-20220113-17-1caja3l.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/440753/original/file-20220113-17-1caja3l.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/440753/original/file-20220113-17-1caja3l.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/440753/original/file-20220113-17-1caja3l.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/440753/original/file-20220113-17-1caja3l.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=500&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/440753/original/file-20220113-17-1caja3l.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=500&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/440753/original/file-20220113-17-1caja3l.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=500&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Township Scene (1961)</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Museum Africa</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>It demonstrates a vitality, rigorous draughtsmanship and the use of strong non-descriptive colour and expressionistic paint application that distinguishes it from the more stereotyped impressions of black, township life popular at the time. </p>
<p>Despite working in a hostile apartheid environment, Maqhubela excelled and had success early in his career. </p>
<h2>A transformative trip</h2>
<p>He won first prize at the Adler Fielding Gallery’s annual ‘Artists of Fame and Promise’ exhibition in 1966 with a monumental <a href="https://www.britannica.com/art/conte-crayon">conté drawing</a> called <em>Peter’s Denial</em>. Namibian-born artist <a href="https://grahamsgallery.co.za/profile/stanley-faraday-pinker/">Stanley Pinker</a> was the runner-up and Maqhubela became the first to cross the divide between black and white South African artists. His work was much in demand. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/440665/original/file-20220113-955-i4lweb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A black and white image of a young man, an earnest expression on his face, hair short and sporting a moustache." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/440665/original/file-20220113-955-i4lweb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/440665/original/file-20220113-955-i4lweb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=702&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/440665/original/file-20220113-955-i4lweb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=702&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/440665/original/file-20220113-955-i4lweb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=702&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/440665/original/file-20220113-955-i4lweb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=882&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/440665/original/file-20220113-955-i4lweb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=882&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/440665/original/file-20220113-955-i4lweb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=882&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A young Louis Maqhubela.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Image courtesy the Maqhubela family</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Maqhubela’s prize included a return air ticket to Europe; he was already well informed and read, but the three months spent abroad transformed his life and work.</p>
<p>In the great museums and galleries, he encountered the masters of <a href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/art-terms/m/modernism">Modernism</a> and <a href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/art-terms/a/abstract-art">abstraction</a>. A major exhibition of Swiss-German artist <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Paul-Klee">Paul Klee</a>’s work in Paris had a profound impact on him. </p>
<p>Passing over a chance to meet the famous painter <a href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/francis-bacon-682/who-is-francis-bacon">Francis Bacon</a>, Maqhubela went to St Ives in Cornwall to see South African-born artist <a href="http://www.artnet.com/artists/douglas-portway/">Douglas Portway</a>. In Portway he found not only a mature and exceptional painter, but also a kindred spirit, someone in search of creativity and expression beyond observed reality, someone who explored the spiritual and metaphysical realms of making art. In an interview appearing in <em>The Star</em> newspaper in 1968, shortly after his return, Maqhubela <a href="https://read.dukeupress.edu/nka/article-abstract/2011/28/20/48848/A-Vigil-of-DepartureLouis-Khehla-Maqhubela-1960?redirectedFrom=fulltext">said</a>: “I learned a lot from him. We spent many hours discussing art and techniques.” His own path to a divine source was as a student of the <a href="https://www.rosicrucian.org/">Rosicrucian Order</a>.</p>
<p>Maqhubela’s break with the past and his new direction meant the end of <a href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/art-terms/f/figurative-art">figurative expressionism</a>, with its emphasis on the human figure, and the beginning of a personal engagement with modernist abstraction, referencing forms and shapes. This was accompanied by the development of an artistic language and iconography inspired by his quest for spiritual growth. His paintings in oil on canvas or paper of the 1970s are characterised by thinly applied layers of paint articulated by means of <a href="https://www.britannica.com/art/sgraffito">scraffito</a>, sometimes completely abstract, at other times with figures, birds and animals emerging from the wiry lines, colour and floating shapes.</p>
<h2>An abstract artist emerges</h2>
<p>Maqhubela was successful, but the obstacles he and his family faced in apartheid South Africa proved too great for them. They moved to the Spanish island of Ibiza in 1973 and settled in London in 1978. </p>
<p>He studied at Goldsmiths College (1984-85) and the Slade School of Art (1985-88). At the Slade, Maqhubela was exposed to printmaking and in 1986 he produced a series of etchings that count among the most significant in his oeuvre. He continued to exhibit extensively in South Africa, in group as well as solo shows and featured prominently in <a href="https://www.sahistory.org.za/people/esme-berman">Esmé Berman</a>’s book, <em>The Story of South African Painting</em> (1975).</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/440666/original/file-20220113-1343-m429sr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Two brightly coloured paintings hanging on an art gallery wall. They feature circular and angular shapes in yellows, reds and blues." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/440666/original/file-20220113-1343-m429sr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/440666/original/file-20220113-1343-m429sr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=459&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/440666/original/file-20220113-1343-m429sr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=459&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/440666/original/file-20220113-1343-m429sr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=459&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/440666/original/file-20220113-1343-m429sr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=577&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/440666/original/file-20220113-1343-m429sr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=577&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/440666/original/file-20220113-1343-m429sr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=577&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Maqhubela’s paintings on display. On the right, a work called Ndebele Gate.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Image courtesy the Maqhubela family.</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Stimulated by his new environment, and artists such as <a href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/wilhelmina-barns-graham-697">Wilhelmina Barns-Graham</a> and <a href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/john-mclean-1611">John McLean</a>, Maqhubela’s work became increasingly abstract. </p>
<p>A trip to South Africa in 1994 to experience first hand the euphoria of freedom that followed the country’s first democratic elections, and again in 2001 to receive medical treatment, had a powerful impact on Maqhubela. This gave renewed impetus to his work, bringing thematic and technical changes.</p>
<h2>Major collections</h2>
<p>In 1998, Maqhubela’s gouache on paper, <a href="https://africa.si.edu/collections/view/objects/asimages/People@1737?t:state:flow=fdeead86-a02d-4847-ba01-8a90100a8037"><em>Tyilo-Tyilo</em></a> (1997), was purchased by the Smithsonian National Museum of African Art, in the USA. The painting celebrates the music of the 1960s from the South African townships. The year before, the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, UK, acquired an untitled Maqhubela oil painting with etching on paper. It depicts etched figures, lines and shapes with a dreamy, child-like quality, yet the careful composition reveals the hand of a master draughtsman. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/440667/original/file-20220113-1519-p2ktpj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Numerous paintings hanging on two art gallery walls, featuring fluid, abstract forms and shapes in bright colours." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/440667/original/file-20220113-1519-p2ktpj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/440667/original/file-20220113-1519-p2ktpj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=360&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/440667/original/file-20220113-1519-p2ktpj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=360&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/440667/original/file-20220113-1519-p2ktpj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=360&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/440667/original/file-20220113-1519-p2ktpj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=452&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/440667/original/file-20220113-1519-p2ktpj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=452&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/440667/original/file-20220113-1519-p2ktpj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=452&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Maqhubela’s art focused on spiritual forms and concerns.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Images courtesy the Maqhubela family</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The artist is represented in all the major public collections in South Africa. The exhibition <a href="https://read.dukeupress.edu/nka/article-abstract/2011/28/20/48848/A-Vigil-of-DepartureLouis-Khehla-Maqhubela-1960?redirectedFrom=fulltext"><em>A Vigil of Departure</em></a> <em>– Louis Khehla Maqhubela, a retrospective 1960-2010</em> first opened at the Standard Bank Gallery, Johannesburg in 2010 and travelled to the <a href="https://www.printmatters.co.za/art,_craft_&_graphics/books/219/Between+Dreams+and+Realities+-+A+History+of+the+South+African+National+Gallery%2C+1871-2017/">Iziko South African National Gallery</a> in Cape Town and the Durban Art Gallery. </p>
<p>The exhibition, together with the extensive <a href="https://quaggabooks.co.za/product/a-vigil-of-departure-louis-khehla-maqhubela-a-retrospective-1960-2010-martin-marilyn/">catalogue</a>, offered South Africans the opportunity to welcome and embrace a significant artist who, for too long, had been absent from the national consciousness and art history books.</p>
<p>Maqhubela had no immediate successors in the stylistic sense: his art was perhaps too personal and private, too enigmatic to emulate, but – understanding that there was a world beyond the immediate and visible and that it could be revealed through art – he served as a source of inspiration for his compatriots and artists everywhere.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/174897/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Marilyn Martin does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
The master of abstract art proved that black ‘township artists’ from South Africa could become leaders of international styles.
Marilyn Martin, Honorary Research Associate at Michaelis School of Fine Art, University of Cape Town
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/167689
2021-10-18T14:40:21Z
2021-10-18T14:40:21Z
Eco-art, design and architecture can be agents of environmental change in the public realm
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/424848/original/file-20211005-16-6q5zu2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=3%2C205%2C2041%2C1214&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">'Ice Watch,' an installation by Icelandic-Danish artist Olafur Eliasson, put 12 blocks of ice harvested from a fjord in a clock formation in a public place in London, in December 2018.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Sarflondondunc/Flickr)</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">CC BY-NC-ND</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Many of us are aware of the environmental crisis, and the need to change how we operate. On a daily basis, a variety of media offer images that depict the effects of climate change to help us understand the extent of environmental damage — for example, in the form of scientists’ <a href="https://www.oecd.org/env/indicators-modelling-outlooks/data-and-indicators.htm">endless data and metrics</a> presented in graphs or in news photographs.</p>
<p><a href="https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/against-anthropocene">Visual imagery</a> has been central to how people develop a sense of the meaning of the Anthropocene — the era we are living in, the first time that <a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/anthropocene-a-very-short-introduction-9780198792987?cc=us&lang=en&">human activity is the dominant influence on climate</a>. </p>
<p>In the past few decades, new practices of art, design and architecture in the public realm have helped raise awareness about ubiquitous waste, pollution and global warming, and their associated social injustices. </p>
<p>With my colleagues, I am cataloguing <a href="https://ideas-be.ca/project/the-eco-didactic-project/">public art, design and architecture projects</a> in Canada that aim to teach about the environmental crisis, to reveal what eco-lessons are conveyed to the public and what the public can learn. Our work is informed by drawing on art and design that has helped launch both expert and community dialogue about what kinds of visual imagery and artistic practices might engender positive action for our environment.</p>
<h2>Green arithmetic</h2>
<p><a href="https://jasonwmoore.com/">Environmental historian and professor of sociology</a> <a href="https://www.pmpress.org/index.php?l=product_detail&p=779">Jason W. Moore has explored how</a> environmental researchers and policy makers have aimed to help the public understand how global warming is affecting Earth through <a href="https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2021/04/carbon-offsetting-climate-crisis">data and metrics about environmental change</a> — what he calls “green arithmetic.” </p>
<p>Even if these quantifiable methods of representation have been a powerful model for understanding the <a href="https://www.nationalgeographic.com/climate-change/how-to-live-with-it/weather.html">“what” of our planetary condition</a>, it’s unclear if people have understood the effects of the present crisis on biological and socio-economic aspects of our interconnected world — or what changes we need to change course. </p>
<p><a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-66275-4">Graphical charts</a> show exponential damages, but who can understand what a kilogram of carbon dioxide is or what it does to the environment? This format of visual imagery is far too abstract and the <a href="https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/decolonizing-nature">information depicted is set at a scale that is difficult for many to imagine</a>.</p>
<p>As T.J. Demos, professor of art history and visual culture, has argued, <a href="https://www.sternberg-press.com/product/against-the-anthropocene-visual-culture-and-environment-today/">graphs developed by environmental organizations or researchers rarely motivate people</a> to take positive environmental action. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/425570/original/file-20211008-28-1ragrqh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A photograph of tall towers on oil fields." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/425570/original/file-20211008-28-1ragrqh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/425570/original/file-20211008-28-1ragrqh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=470&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/425570/original/file-20211008-28-1ragrqh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=470&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/425570/original/file-20211008-28-1ragrqh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=470&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/425570/original/file-20211008-28-1ragrqh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=590&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/425570/original/file-20211008-28-1ragrqh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=590&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/425570/original/file-20211008-28-1ragrqh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=590&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">‘Edward Burtynsky’s 'Oil Fields #19ab,’ chromogenic color print, taken in Belridge, Calif., in 2003, seen at the Nevada Museum of Art in July 2019.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(rocor/Flickr)</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/">CC BY-NC</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Sublime images of catastrophe</h2>
<p>Some artists have created sublime imagery depicting situations of catastrophe. Photographer <a href="https://www.edwardburtynsky.com/projects/photographs">Edward Burtynsky</a> and other artists have developed artistic investigations that tell stories that reflect on what <a href="https://www.edwardburtynsky.com/projects/the-anthropocene-project">environmental transformation means</a>. </p>
<p>Photographer <a href="https://www.jhenryfair.com/hidden-costs-2">J. Henry Fair</a> is another artist who <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/gallery/2016/oct/24/industrial-scars-the-environmental-cost-of-consumption-in-pictures">uses magnificent pictures</a> to document “<a href="https://books.google.ca/books/about/Industrial_Scars.html?id=sO_DxgEACAAJ&redir_esc=y">the hidden costs of consumption</a>.”</p>
<p>This type of art is often placed in museums, which in most cases, isn’t an open public space. And only <a href="https://publications.gc.ca/collections/Collection/K23-45-2004-4E.pdf">a small portion of the population ever sets foot into a museum</a>. </p>
<p>However, it is not only museums that exhibit such images. Media outlets reaching the general public sometimes <a href="https://www.huffpost.com/entry/beautiful-human-pollution_n_4589383">share photos about climate change disasters that they package as “beautiful”</a> and “<a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/pictures/climate-change-photos/">stunning</a>.” </p>
<p>Such images may indeed be “stunning.” The problem is, however, that such pictures, whether generated by professional artists, photojournalists or by people <a href="https://unsplash.com/s/photos/environmental-impact">sharing on creative forums</a>, are <a href="https://www.edwardburtynsky.com/projects/photographs/tailings">often so sublimely produced</a> that audiences want to consume more of them. Yet, there isn’t much certainty that this will help raise awareness <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/12/arts/art-climate-change.html">of real causes of environmental damage, let alone engender change</a>. These types of artworks, which can become highly popular cultural products, may be counterproductive to the aim of enabling change. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1290366751126040582"}"></div></p>
<h2>Public eco-art installations</h2>
<p>On the other hand, the <a href="https://hyperallergic.com/260217/olafur-eliassons-sundial-of-melting-icebergs-clocks-in-at-half-past-wasteful/">public art installation <em>Ice Watch</em></a> by
<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2015/jun/21/olafur-eliasson-i-am-not-special-interview-tree-of-codes-ballet-manchester">Icelandic Danish artist</a> <a href="https://www.olafureliasson.net/">Olafur Eliasson</a>, first created in 2014, was a seminal work intended to provoke immediate responses to our ecological crisis.</p>
<p>In the words of the artist, this work saw: “<a href="https://olafureliasson.net/archive/artwork/WEK109190/ice-watch">12 large blocks of ice cast off from the Greenland ice sheet are harvested from a fjord outside Nuuk</a> and presented in a clock formation in a prominent public place.” </p>
<p>In its second installation, the work was placed in front of the Place du Pantheon in Paris in 2015, when an international meeting on climate change, <a href="https://unfccc.int/process-and-meetings/the-paris-agreement/the-paris-agreement">COP21</a>, was taking place. </p>
<p>The installation was simple, yet it made <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/culture/culture-desk/the-artist-who-is-bringing-icebergs-to-paris">climate change immediately felt for those present</a>, as people could see and touch the massive chunks of melting ice. It also <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.5250/resilience.7.2-3.0178">connected people all around the world</a> through its <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/-0vMATLRN4/?hl=en">Instagram feed</a>. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="InstagramEmbed" data-react-props="{"url":"https://www.instagram.com/p/-0vMATLRN4/?hl=en","accessToken":"127105130696839|b4b75090c9688d81dfd245afe6052f20"}"></div></p>
<p>A statement about the artwork noted that the ice sheet from which these blocks were harvested is “<a href="http://olafureliasson.net.s3.amazonaws.com/subpages/icewatchlondon/press/Ice_Watch_Carbon_Footprint_Paris_2015.pdf">losing the equivalent of 1,000 such blocks of ice per second throughout the year</a>.” There were no graphs showing data about melting glaciers. Yet witnesses had a resonating experience about climate catastrophe. </p>
<p>The installation helped people confront the environmental crisis in a direct and personal way, since people saw, as writer Rebecca Solnit noted, a “<a href="https://news.artnet.com/art-world/ice-watch-olafur-eliasson-climate-summit-384704">beautiful, disturbing, dying monument</a>.” A feeling of <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-age-of-solastalgia-8337">dread and eco-anxiety</a> is at the core of this experience, a concept termed <a href="https://bridges.monash.edu/articles/journal_contribution/_Solastalgia_a_new_concept_in_health_and_identity/4311905">“solastalgia,” in 2005 by professor of sustainability Glenn Albrecht</a>. </p>
<h2>Public digital art</h2>
<p>Another example is <a href="https://www.sciencehistory.org/particle-falls"><em>Particle Falls</em></a>, by digital media artist <a href="http://connectingcities.net/project/particle-falls">Andrea Polli</a>. This work was <a href="https://hyperallergic.com/182480/a-digital-waterfall-that-illuminates-the-threat-of-air-pollution/">first publicly projected in 2010</a> and has been shown in a variety of places, including Philadelphia in 2013. </p>
<p><em>Particle Falls</em> projects a visualization of air pollution data of the surrounding area and projects this as a waterfall. When the waterfall is calm, the air pollution is low. When pollution is high, the waterfall resembles an agitated boiling sludge seeping down the side of the building. Anyone walking on the city streets can encounter this visualization and be directly affected since it displays real-time data that can be seen and acted on. </p>
<figure>
<iframe src="https://player.vimeo.com/video/77810564" width="500" height="281" frameborder="0" webkitallowfullscreen="" mozallowfullscreen="" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption"><em>Particle Falls</em> projected in Philadelphia.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Getting to systemic change</h2>
<p>These public works are successful in their capacity to <a href="https://doi.org/10.3390/su13073747">make catastrophic situations, which are invisible to most people, visible</a>. They may even activate some small behaviour changes. </p>
<p>Are such creations successful in empowering systemic change? Combining real-time data with visceral experiences in public spaces is a first step. Perhaps <a href="https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/13/8/4577">the ability to also deeply engage civic society in these public works</a> may enable the necessary transformational changes. </p>
<p>Eco-art and design projects in public spaces are about offering powerful experiences to passersby and where they become witnesses to a devastating world situation. Through these experiences, people move a step closer to situations they may otherwise not have been able to imagine. And, having imagined these situations, people may then perhaps be motivated to solve them.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/167689/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Carmela Cucuzzella receives funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) of Canada.</span></em></p>
From installations of ice to projected art generated from air quality readings, artists and designers offer powerful experiences where people become witnesses to what’s happening and what’s possible.
Carmela Cucuzzella, Professor Design and Computation Arts, Concordia University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/165503
2021-08-05T13:37:12Z
2021-08-05T13:37:12Z
Giant inflatables and flying dancers: Olympic art has always turned heads
<p>In the days before the Tokyo 2020 <a href="https://theconversation.com/very-genki-slightly-kitsch-occasionally-compelling-the-olympic-opening-ceremony-put-humanity-in-centre-frame-164786">opening ceremony</a>, a giant head emerged, floating over the city. Entitled <a href="https://hyperallergic.com/663886/giant-balloon-face-floats-over-tokyo/">Masayume</a> (which means “a dream come true” in Japanese), this oversized balloon by artist collective Me (“eyes”), was part of the <a href="https://tokyotokyofestival.jp/en/media/">Tokyo Tokyo Festival</a>, as an arts response to the Olympic Games. </p>
<p>Art has long accompanied the arrival of the Olympics in a city. Budgets might vary, but the Games are the largest event out there. Local organisations and the Olympic Organising Committee (IOC) both seek to capitalise on the attention the Games garner by generating extracurricular cultural moments that echo the athletic accomplishments in the stadiums. </p>
<p>From Leni Riefenstahl’s film, Olympia, at the Berlin 1936 Games to <a href="https://www.phillips.com/detail/andy-warhol/UK030113/64">Speed Skater</a>, Andy Warhol’s print for Sarajevo 1984, artists have contributed to modern Olympic narratives in iconic ways. The purpose of these interventions, not to mention their desired audience, has varied considerably.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/H3LOPhRq3Es?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Leni Riefenstahl, Olympia, Festival of Nations (1936), which documented the 1936 Berlin Summer Olympics.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Controversy and political statement</h2>
<p>Between 1912 and 1948, official <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Clive-Palmer-National-Teaching-Fellow/publication/282357243_Stephan_Wassong_Karl_Lennartz_and_Thomas_Zawadzki_2008_Olympic_art_contests_1912-1948_their_invention_and_demise_Chapter_25_pp241-251_In_Palmer_C_and_Torevell_D_Eds_The_turn_to_aesthetics_Liverpool_Ho/links/560e356f08ae967420111857/Stephan-Wassong-Karl-Lennartz-and-Thomas-Zawadzki-2008-Olympic-art-contests-1912-1948-their-invention-and-demise-Chapter-25-pp241-251-In-Palmer-C-and-Torevell-D-Eds-The-turn-to-aesthetics-Liverpo.pdf">Olympic art competitions</a> accompanied the Games. Artists, sculptors and architects competed for gold, silver and bronze medals, with winning entries including designs for stadiums and future official Olympic medals. </p>
<p>The most influential artistic intervention from this period, however, was delivered out of competition. With <a href="https://www.google.co.uk/books/edition/Olympia/5x9dDwAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=olympia+leni+riefenstahl+film+history&pg=PP1&printsec=frontcover">Olympia</a> Riefenstahl shaped the narrative of the 1936 Berlin Games and made a lasting mark on film-making worldwide. Debate continues on whether the film is a <a href="https://digitalcommons.brockport.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?referer=https://scholar.google.co.uk/&httpsredir=1&article=1047&context=pes_facpub">piece of Nazi propaganda</a> or a universal celebration of sport aesthetics.</p>
<p>The Mexico 1968 Games also resulted in multiple lasting narratives, infused with the political upheavals of the era. The fabled <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.5406/jsporthistory.37.1.119">black power salute</a> <a href="https://theconversation.com/fifty-years-later-peter-normans-heroic-olympic-stand-is-finally-being-recognised-at-home-102112">photograph</a> – featuring American athletes Tommie Smith and John Carlos, each raising a black-gloved fist during the US national anthem on the Olympic podium – is doubtless the enduring legacy of that edition. </p>
<p>Those Olympics left other lasting traces. In a bid to visually integrate sculpture and architecture with the Olympic Village, architect Pedro Ramírez Vázquez, the chairman of the Olympic Games organising committee, and artist Mathias Goeritz conceived of the <a href="http://ru.micisan.unam.mx/bitstream/handle/123456789/19006/VOM-0082-0033.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y">Route of Friendship</a>. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/414793/original/file-20210805-23-1h5p5mn.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="An abstract structure of reinforced concrete, painted yellow, on a Mexican road" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/414793/original/file-20210805-23-1h5p5mn.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/414793/original/file-20210805-23-1h5p5mn.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=440&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/414793/original/file-20210805-23-1h5p5mn.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=440&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/414793/original/file-20210805-23-1h5p5mn.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=440&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/414793/original/file-20210805-23-1h5p5mn.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=553&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/414793/original/file-20210805-23-1h5p5mn.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=553&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/414793/original/file-20210805-23-1h5p5mn.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=553&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">French sculptor Jorge Dubon’s contribution, in reinforced concrete, to the Route of Friendship sculpture trail for the Mexico 1968 Games.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e3/Mexico_68_Jorge_Dubon.jpg">Jorge Dubon | Wikimedia Commons</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>A meander of 19 monumental sculptures (by international artists including Alexander Calder) installed along southern Mexico City’s Beltway, it <a href="http://ru.micisan.unam.mx/bitstream/handle/123456789/19006/VOM-0082-0033.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y">was a first</a> for government-sponsored public art in Mexico, being both abstract and fully integrated into urban planning. </p>
<p>The <a href="https://library.olympics.com/Default/doc/SYRACUSE/78766/artistic-and-cultural-program-of-the-games-of-the-xix-olympiad-comite-organizador-de-los-juegos-de-l">official cultural programme</a> of the Mexico 1968 Games is seen as the most ambitious in history. It positioned the nation as a world-leading art and culture hub, from <a href="https://www.google.co.uk/books/edition/Spectacular_Mexico/oS90DwAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=Mexico+1968+graphic+design+Olympic&pg=PT7&printsec=frontcover">graphic design and advertising</a> to the performing and visual arts. And it set the example for how the Games could showcase culture, not just as heritage, but of equal contemporary value as the Olympic sports themselves.</p>
<h2>Host star</h2>
<p>At the Barcelona 1992 Summer Games, the <a href="http://ceo.uab.cat/en/b/moragas-botella-keys-success-impact-barcelona-1992-olympic-games/">host city</a> became the star, the athletes’ equal. The <a href="https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1057/9780230294790_15">public art programme</a> effectively rebranded Barcelona as the culture tourist hub we know today. There was art on the street (by luminaries including Elsworth Kelly and Antoni Tapiès) and on rediscovered beaches (Rebecca Horn), with an <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-designing-an-olympic-logo-is-so-difficult-164984">indelible logo</a> <a href="https://www.theolympicdesign.com/olympic-design/emblems/barcelona-1992/">riffing on</a> Joan Miró’s paintings, the city’s most famous son.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/414803/original/file-20210805-21-16ndplm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A large steel and glass sculpture on a beach in Barcelona" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/414803/original/file-20210805-21-16ndplm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/414803/original/file-20210805-21-16ndplm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/414803/original/file-20210805-21-16ndplm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/414803/original/file-20210805-21-16ndplm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/414803/original/file-20210805-21-16ndplm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/414803/original/file-20210805-21-16ndplm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/414803/original/file-20210805-21-16ndplm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">L'Estel Ferit (The Wounded Shooting Star) by German artist Rebecca Horn, installed on Sant Miquel beach for the Barcelona 1992 Games.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/lotrex/19249275378/">Marc Garrido Clotet | flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">CC BY-NC-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>By the time the London 2012 Games came round, expectations of what Olympic art programmes could do for a country had grown exponentially. The ambitious <a href="https://livrepository.liverpool.ac.uk/3084282/1/Garcia%282015%29CultureAtHeartGames-London2012GAmes.pdf">Cultural Olympiad</a> saw events and exhibitions nationwide bring art to unusual spaces, with young people at the helm. </p>
<p>There was the <a href="https://www.liftfestival.com/events/one-extraordinary-day/">One Extraordinary Day</a> dance extravaganza, wherein aerial performers battled gravity on London’s signature structures, from the Millennium Bridge to the London Eye. And the eye-catching responses to heritage locations, from Jeremy Deller’s <a href="https://elephant.art/stupid-artwork-ever-jeremy-dellers-bouncy-castle-stonehenge/">inflatable Stonehenge</a> to <a href="http://www.digiart21.org/art/connecting-light">interactive light displays</a> at Hadrian’s Wall.
British sculptor Anish Kapoor’s Acerolmittal Orbit tower, meanwhile, remains London 2012’s most visible and <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/10486801.2013.839175">most controversial</a> symbol. </p>
<p>The value of these interventions have been discussed in an extensive <a href="https://www.academia.edu/4178325/London_2012_Cultural_Olympiad_Evaluation_ExecutiveSummary">evaluation programme</a> – the first time that the impact of art and culture at an Olympics Games has been documented in such detail. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Punters jump on an inflatable Stonehenge art installation" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/414807/original/file-20210805-27-tcwgnc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/414807/original/file-20210805-27-tcwgnc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=384&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/414807/original/file-20210805-27-tcwgnc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=384&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/414807/original/file-20210805-27-tcwgnc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=384&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/414807/original/file-20210805-27-tcwgnc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=483&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/414807/original/file-20210805-27-tcwgnc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=483&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/414807/original/file-20210805-27-tcwgnc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=483&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Jeremy Deller’s Sacrilege, Stonehenge on tour, conceived for London 2012.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/50144889@N08/7444268168">Robert Pittman | flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>The future</h2>
<p>Tokyo 2020’s official cultural programme, the <a href="https://olympics.com/tokyo-2020/en/events/nippon-festival/">Nippon Festival</a>, has not been as visible and meaningful to international audiences as the organising committee might have liked. The local authority and arts council have, however, been savvy in positioning the Tokyo Tokyo Festival as a fullblown artworld event. Of 2,436 public proposals, <a href="https://ttf-koubo.jp/en/">13 large-scale artworks</a> were commissioned, including that giant inflatable and <a href="https://ttf-koubo.jp/en/project/jason-bruges-studio/">a robotic Zen garden</a>. </p>
<p>Further, the IOC has, for the first time, presented its own take on how culture meets sport with the inaugural <a href="https://olympics.com/olympic-agora/en/">Olympic Agora</a>. The purpose of this new space has been to present public art commissions - including a permanent installation, entitled <a href="https://olympics.com/olympic-agora/en/legacy-sculpture">The Audience</a> by French artist Xavier Veilhan - and major exhibitions that tell the story of the Games and the <a href="https://olympics.com/ioc/olympic-movement">Olympic Movement</a>. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A dancer in a red unitard flies off a scaffolding structure in Central London" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/414806/original/file-20210805-21-15hndm7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/414806/original/file-20210805-21-15hndm7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=523&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/414806/original/file-20210805-21-15hndm7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=523&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/414806/original/file-20210805-21-15hndm7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=523&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/414806/original/file-20210805-21-15hndm7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=657&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/414806/original/file-20210805-21-15hndm7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=657&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/414806/original/file-20210805-21-15hndm7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=657&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Performers from the New York-based dance company Streb take flight in Trafalgar Square during the London 2012 Games.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/botosynthetic/7581217632/">smokeghost | flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/">CC BY-NC-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The Agora, thus, represents a position statement for the IOC rather than the host city. It remains to be seen whether Veilhan’s piece will gain credibility as an Olympic art landmark, whether it can impress savvy art audiences or tell future tourists enough about Tokyo as an Olympic city. For residents and Olympic fans alike, however, it will surely become a symbol of what it took to host these historic Games in the middle of a pandemic.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/165503/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Beatriz Garcia was appointed by the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games organising committee to direct the evaluation of the Games Cultural Olympiad between 2012 and 2013. She undertook this role as an academic representing the University of Liverpool. Beatriz was also invited to Tokyo in 2019 to share her academic knowledge about the history and management of Olympic arts programming with the team in charge of the Nippon Festival.</span></em></p>
The giant head spotted hovering over the Tokyo skyline in recent weeks is the latest in a long line of Olympic art moments. Debate and controversy are never far behind.
Beatriz Garcia, Director, Cities of Culture Research Observatory, University of Liverpool
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/162991
2021-07-05T15:34:26Z
2021-07-05T15:34:26Z
Bringing art into public spaces can improve the social fabric of a city
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/408701/original/file-20210628-15-rsltps.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=40%2C31%2C2955%2C1836&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A woman walks past a mural in Vancouver, B.C. The power of public art is its ability to turn artistic practice into a social action.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Marissa Tiel </span></span></figcaption></figure><p>You don’t need to look far to see the impact of art in public spaces. Art can connect us to place and record history as it unfolds. </p>
<p>Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, stories on the <a href="https://www.publicartarchive.org/public-art-covid19/">importance of public art</a> are being <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/01/travel/coronavirus-street-art.html">told globally</a>. And this isn’t new. Times of crisis have often inspired some of the most influential artistic movements. </p>
<p>Displaying visual symbols of resistance publicly, like the face of George Floyd, can connect <a href="https://www.thisiscolossal.com/2020/06/george-floyd-global-murals/">social movements across the world</a>. And in Canada, the display of statues like Egerton Ryerson have been <a href="https://theconversation.com/egerton-ryerson-racist-philosophy-of-residential-schools-also-shaped-public-education-143039">deemed unacceptable</a> as we reckon with our ongoing colonial history.</p>
<p>Public art <a href="https://www.routledge.com/The-Everyday-Practice-of-Public-Art-Art-Space-and-Social-Inclusion/Cartiere-Zebracki/p/book/9781138829213">can be defined</a> as art that is available to the general public outside of museums and galleries; publicly funded; and related to the interests or concerns of, and used by a public community. </p>
<p>Public art is referred to by some as <a href="https://www.deeproot.com/blog/blog-entries/creative-placemaking-using-the-arts-as-a-tool-for-community-development">creative placemaking</a>: a process of artistic creation and collaboration that helps to shape the surrounding built, natural and social environments. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/408726/original/file-20210628-19-axegbe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="An elderly woman walks past a mural that depicts a Black health-care worker wearing a blue face mask and scrubs." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/408726/original/file-20210628-19-axegbe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/408726/original/file-20210628-19-axegbe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=789&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/408726/original/file-20210628-19-axegbe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=789&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/408726/original/file-20210628-19-axegbe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=789&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/408726/original/file-20210628-19-axegbe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=992&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/408726/original/file-20210628-19-axegbe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=992&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/408726/original/file-20210628-19-axegbe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=992&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">An elderly woman walks past a mural that pays tribute to health-care workers in Toronto, Ont.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Nathan Denette</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>For French philosopher <a href="https://www.versobooks.com/books/1029-the-emancipated-spectator">Jacques Rancière</a>, art is disruptive. Done right, he says, it can make the spectator rethink their understanding of politics and society by calling to attention previously hidden inequalities. </p>
<p>For many, the power of public art rests in its ability to turn artistic practice into a <a href="https://www.artnews.com/art-news/news/art-of-social-practice-is-changing-the-world-one-row-house-at-a-time-2415/">social practice</a>. It challenges the viewer to confront social issues that affect the very place they stand.</p>
<h2>Art in times of crisis</h2>
<p>COVID-19 is just one example of a period of shared adversity when our connection to the arts has flourished. <a href="https://time.com/5827561/1918-flu-art/">The Dadaists’ commentary on the 1918 flu</a> reflected an intense and collectively frustrated desire for meaning in a world filled with chaos.</p>
<p>During the Great Depression, the arts became increasingly experimental. In the United States, President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal saw the largest public art <a href="https://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/1934-the-art-of-the-new-deal-132242698/">funding initiative</a> the country had seen. A few decades later, in the 1980s, provinces and municipalities in Canada followed suit and began <a href="https://canadianart.ca/features/art-in-condoland/">significantly investing in public art</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/408700/original/file-20210628-17-qgcxhp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=175%2C486%2C5974%2C2471&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A man stands infront of a mural depicting Bernie Sanders. The word demos is written above." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/408700/original/file-20210628-17-qgcxhp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=175%2C486%2C5974%2C2471&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/408700/original/file-20210628-17-qgcxhp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/408700/original/file-20210628-17-qgcxhp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/408700/original/file-20210628-17-qgcxhp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/408700/original/file-20210628-17-qgcxhp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/408700/original/file-20210628-17-qgcxhp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/408700/original/file-20210628-17-qgcxhp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A mural inspired by a photo of U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders bundled up and wearing mittens and a face mask at President Joe Biden’s inauguration on a legal graffiti wall at the Leeside Tunnel skateboard park in Vancouver.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darryl Dyck</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p><a href="https://theconversation.com/the-soundtrack-of-the-sixties-demanded-respect-justice-and-equality-105640">Protest music</a> during the civil rights movement and Vietnam War expressed anger, despair and hope. Gay artists and writers <a href="https://www.cairn.info/revue-etudes-anglaises-2008-3-page-350.htm">during the AIDS crisis memorialized a collective grief</a> that was being either ignored or vilified. The art from both eras came at an immense cost, and has been profoundly culturally and socially influential. </p>
<p>Today, the pandemic has highlighted and exacerbated inequalities that were already present.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/coronavirus-discriminates-against-black-lives-through-surveillance-policing-and-the-absence-of-health-data-135906">Coronavirus discriminates against Black lives through surveillance, policing and the absence of health data</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>But there has also been engagement and social solidarity: from <a href="https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2021/05/23/19-black-canadians-on-what-has-changed-one-year-since-george-floyds-murder-and-what-next-steps-we-need-to-take.html">Black Lives Matter</a>, to the Indigenous <a href="https://www.macleans.ca/opinion/what-were-seeing-in-2020-is-idle-no-more-2-0/">Land Back movement</a> and <a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/we-are-not-the-virus/id1530051155">support for unhoused people</a>.</p>
<p>Those who have the privilege not to pay attention are finding this option less viable. This engagement arguably comes with its own <a href="https://theconversation.com/what-is-solidarity-during-coronavirus-and-always-its-more-than-were-all-in-this-together-135002">set of problems</a>, but it is a momentum that can be built upon to imagine and do the work needed to create better futures for society. </p>
<p>Artists are well positioned to do this creative imagining. </p>
<h2>Art beyond the gallery</h2>
<p>As we each search for meaning throughout our intensely local and geographically limited lives during the pandemic, public art finds, creates and shares the beauty, joy and solidarity that can be found in public spaces.</p>
<p>Galleries are often isolated from the communities in geographical proximity. They have often been <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/00043249.2017.1367190">places of exclusion</a>, and have historically served to uphold a dominant, European <a href="https://jps.library.utoronto.ca/index.php/des/article/view/20250">settler-centred narrative</a>. They have played a role in perpetuating colonial and racist attitudes towards Indigenous communities, their art and histories. </p>
<p>Indigenous artists have long been <a href="https://www.rebeccabelmore.com/artifact-671b/">challenging these narratives</a>. Mainstream art is catching on, and there has been an unprecedented level of Indigenous <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00043249.2017.1367191">representation and leadership</a> within gallery spaces in recent decades. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/408730/original/file-20210628-17-17vfrty.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="People walk past paintings in a museum." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/408730/original/file-20210628-17-17vfrty.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/408730/original/file-20210628-17-17vfrty.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/408730/original/file-20210628-17-17vfrty.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/408730/original/file-20210628-17-17vfrty.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/408730/original/file-20210628-17-17vfrty.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/408730/original/file-20210628-17-17vfrty.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/408730/original/file-20210628-17-17vfrty.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Galleries can often be places of exclusion that uphold colonial and racist attitudes.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://unsplash.com/photos/XvQkiEkLrss">(Unsplash/Diogo Fagundes)</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>This leadership should shape public art in Canada. Public spaces, like art galleries, have also <a href="https://theconversation.com/6-ways-to-approach-urban-green-spaces-in-the-push-for-racial-justice-and-health-equity-160227">privileged some</a> more than others. Bringing art outside of the gallery space is not a catch-all solution. What matters more is how it’s done. </p>
<h2>Toronto’s year of public art</h2>
<p>In Toronto, the municipal government has announced that its “<a href="https://www.toronto.ca/explore-enjoy/history-art-culture/public-art/year-of-public-art/">Year of Public Art</a>” will begin in the fall with a total budget of $4.5 million in 2021. This is the inauguration of a 10-year public art plan. It responds to calls for an improved public art strategy, with a greater commitment to equity in the location of installations, the level of engagement with communities and the artists who create works.</p>
<p>Toronto has promised a strong commitment to Indigenous self-determination, leadership and placemaking within its public art strategy.</p>
<p>The city’s public art installations have <a href="http://www.theartfulcity.org/home/2017/3/9/50-years-of-public-art-in-toronto-where-do-we-go-from-here">increased in the past 50 years</a>, with over 700 installations added between 1967 and 2015. </p>
<p>Toronto’s <a href="https://www.toronto.ca/city-government/planning-development/official-plan-guidelines/design-guidelines/percent-for-public-art-inventory/">Percent for Public Art program</a>, a commonly used strategy in cities in North America and Europe, encourages developers to donate one per cent of their gross construction costs towards public art in their development’s direct vicinity. </p>
<p>The program is <a href="https://www2.ocadu.ca/sites/www2.ocadu.ca/files/project/Pt1%20-%20Redefining%20Public%20Art%20Toronto%202017.pdf">voluntary</a> though. And because most development is happening in the downtown core, this is where public art has been concentrated, meaning neighbourhoods with less development have received less investment in public art. </p>
<p>Nonetheless, the city is home to a multiplicity of adept communities and talented artists who continue to use public art to build community capacity and foster social inclusion. </p>
<p>Listening to artists of diverse backgrounds and elevating communities to participate meaningfully will support important conversations that determine our collective future. And that makes the investment in public art worthwhile for us all.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/162991/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Rhiannon Cobb received the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada Master's scholarship from 2019-2020, and will receive the Ontario Graduate Scholarship in 2021-2022. </span></em></p>
When public art pairs artistic expression with community engagement, it can honour the diverse communities that share public spaces and spur important conversations.
Rhiannon Cobb, PhD Student, Social and Political Thought, York University, Canada
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/160130
2021-05-13T20:09:07Z
2021-05-13T20:09:07Z
Vancouver billboards by artist Steven Shearer evoked intimacy where people least expected it
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/400148/original/file-20210511-20-jpp54e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C53%2C2091%2C1275&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Artist Steven Shearer’s untitled billboard images of reclining and sleeping people were displayed as part of Capture Photography Festival in Vancouver but were soon removed due to complaints.
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Dennis Ha)</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The swift removal of seven billboards <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/vancouver-capture-photography-festival-billboards-steven-shearer-1.5974583">that were part of a public art display in Vancouver</a> at the beginning of April is a chance to consider how people interpret images and art.</p>
<p>Artist <a href="https://capturephotofest.com/public-installations/untitled/">Steven Shearer’s billboard images</a> of people that were displayed as part of <a href="https://capturephotofest.com/about/">Capture Photography Festival</a> began as a collection of found images the artist gleaned from various sources, <a href="https://news.artnet.com/art-world/steven-shearer-billboards-sleeping-people-1956770">including eBay</a>.</p>
<p>The images are banal snapshots of the kind that clutter our phones and that, in the ancient days of film photography, were tucked into a shoebox. We can imagine the circumstances in which they may have been taken — perhaps a friend or lover casually snapping a photograph of the oblivious sleeper to share later for a laugh. In one photograph, disembodied hands poke a finger into a sleeper’s ear. A date stamp reveals the image’s analogue origins, and hints at its <a href="https://www.artspace.com/magazine/art_101/art_market/the-history-of-the-found-object-in-art-52224">status as a found object</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/399325/original/file-20210506-19-ssi7z9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/399325/original/file-20210506-19-ssi7z9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/399325/original/file-20210506-19-ssi7z9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/399325/original/file-20210506-19-ssi7z9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/399325/original/file-20210506-19-ssi7z9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/399325/original/file-20210506-19-ssi7z9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/399325/original/file-20210506-19-ssi7z9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">‘Untitled,’ by Steven Shearer.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Dennis Ha)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Blown up and displayed on billboards on March 30, these photographs elicited such <a href="https://www.vancouverisawesome.com/events-and-entertainment/heres-how-to-check-out-capture-photography-festival-taking-place-in-vancouver-all-month-long-3601690">vitriolic complaints</a> from the public that they remained on display only for <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/vancouver-capture-photography-festival-billboards-steven-shearer-1.5974583">48 hours</a> before <a href="https://www.theartnewspaper.com/news/they-see-dead-people-billboard-works-removed-from-vancouver-photography-festival-after-locals-complain">being replaced </a> with <a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/photocat62/51111046147/in/photolist-2eYE6mU-9pApW3-2kSvtkz-2kSqsNC-2irVyMi-SVPbxf-2dUbisp-2jbzkqa-SVi8e2-R6Y4if-C728Ej-2dUbHhZ-2jFQmpg-2cypYuh-2jbwCQy-ZPNLZ1-uDYSyD-7z3pcy-MzinD-hnsjXs-csRtYy-bQFLH-eKArb9-dYpzKU-A8pap-2htFNCL-S74gWL-2hKaTQY-ec3AfJ-2hCAh93-9RfsKf-2ezouer-2ejY8om-2hy51yz-2hvLEvp-2hmV4Dg-2dqRaoD-2gWNwxA-2gUyGGx-2gNLFbK-9RcxV2-9RcyS6-djXZbX-9RcyfX-9RczhB-2jiv7Ft-2hprHxr-WU4mWe-2hGogkq-bW6ujX">stock images</a>.</p>
<h2>Context is everything</h2>
<p>Context is everything when it comes to understanding images. In their original milieu as informal snapshots, the photographs would have been barely worthy of note. Transposed to billboards where the sleepers we expect are likely to be touting the restorative benefits of mattresses, these commonplace images evoke deeper and more ambivalent responses. </p>
<p>Unlike traditional portraiture, these figures are anonymous – their identities unknown to artist and to viewer. The viewer might imagine them as being universal figures who symbolize the everyman but, in our digital age, they also speak to the ethics of sharing private images in the public domain. It is possible that a viewer walking past a billboard might recognize themselves or someone they know, plucked from the obscurity of a lost snapshot and catapulted into the public eye. </p>
<p>The change in scale and the <a href="https://www.p-art-icipate.net/intervention-art/">intervention into public space</a> forces these images into our imagination in a new and different way. </p>
<p>Scale matters. The photograph we can hold in our hand, either as a digital file in our phones <a href="https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/snapshot-photography">or as a snapshot</a> tends to be, by its nature, unthreatening.</p>
<p>We can control seeing internet images by swiping past them or deleting. We can also indulge by staring at these images privately, taking the time to decode them or fantasize about their meanings. We can rifle past snapshots that disturb us. In an act of ultimate rejection, they can be crumpled into in unrecognizable ball, torn to shreds or even incinerated. </p>
<p>When Shearer’s images were exponentially enlarged to a billboard scale, the images invaded the familiar streetscape in a way that some viewers found deeply disturbing. Commentator Gordon Harris, an urban planner who decried the billboards’ removal, wondered if some people’s outrage was connected with the fact that “<a href="https://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/article-by-covering-up-the-photographs-of-steven-shearer-vancouver-succumbed/">perhaps the images look a little too much like a reflection of people’s image of Vancouver’s homeless population</a>?”</p>
<h2>Sleeping, intimacy</h2>
<p>What did the festival or artist intend? Shearer’s works do not appear to have been meant as provocations. Prior to the project launch, Emmy Lee Wall, the Capture festival’s executive director, received <a href="https://dailyhive.com/vancouver/capture-photography-festival-billboards-covered-steven-shearer">positive feedback</a> about showing Shearer’s work. The curatorial statement associated with Shearer’s series notes:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“The reclining and sleeping figures presented on Shearer’s billboards recall the poses found in religious paintings and sculpture, wherein bodies appear to be in states of ecstasy or seem to defy gravity as if they are floating, having been released of their earthly bonds … (T)he figures have unintentionally invited passersby to observe them at a heightened level of vulnerability and intimacy.” </p>
</blockquote>
<p><a href="https://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/bern/hd_bern.htm">Gian Lorenzo Bernini</a>’s <a href="https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/renaissance-reformation/baroque-art1/baroque-italy/a/bernini-ecstasy-of-saint-teresa"><em>Ecstacy of Saint Teresa</em></a> (1652), in which the sculptor depicts the saint gazing upward in rapture as an angel prepares to thrust a golden spear into her body, bears an uncanny resemblance to Shearer’s billboard where dark fabric draped over the figure’s head stands in for the nun’s <a href="https://handwovenmagazine.com/from-guinivere-to-sally-field-a-history-of-wimples/">wimple</a>. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A photograph of a figure with dark fabric draped over the head with eyes closed and mouth agape next to a carved statue of a nun with a similar facial gestures" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/399349/original/file-20210506-15-1615gri.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/399349/original/file-20210506-15-1615gri.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/399349/original/file-20210506-15-1615gri.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/399349/original/file-20210506-15-1615gri.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/399349/original/file-20210506-15-1615gri.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/399349/original/file-20210506-15-1615gri.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/399349/original/file-20210506-15-1615gri.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">‘Untitled,’ by Steven Shearer on billboard set beside detail of Gian Lorenzo Bernini’s 1652 ‘Ecstasy of Saint Teresa’ at the Cornaro Chapel, Santa Maria della Vittoria, Rome.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Dennis Ha/Shutterstock)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Like Bernini’s saint, the figure in Shearer’s photos has their head tilted back, eyes closed and the mouth slightly agape. The posture of Shearer’s figure, though virtually identical to the saint’s, is simultaneously rendered mundane by the rough grey fabric of what appears to be a sofa cushion in the background. Seen next to the statue, the subject of <a href="https://muse.jhu.edu/article/601633">long-standing commentary about erotic and divine love</a>, viewers may be led to wonder about the complex interaction of created objects and viewer expectations.</p>
<h2>Vulnerability in context</h2>
<p>Another sculpture that may come to mind upon looking at Shearer’s billboard image of a man sprawled on the grass is Giuseppe Sanmartino’s <a href="https://www.museosansevero.it/en/the-statue/"><em>Veiled Christ</em></a>(1753). </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Sleeping figure is shown with a hand pulling down his lip and putting a finger in ear" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/399342/original/file-20210506-15-18n37jw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/399342/original/file-20210506-15-18n37jw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/399342/original/file-20210506-15-18n37jw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/399342/original/file-20210506-15-18n37jw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/399342/original/file-20210506-15-18n37jw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/399342/original/file-20210506-15-18n37jw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/399342/original/file-20210506-15-18n37jw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">‘Untitled,’ by Steven Shearer.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Dennis Ha)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p><a href="https://ninedotarts.com/importance-context-art-collections/">Context</a> is everything in interpreting images. For example, a viewer who encounters Sanmartino’s <em>Veiled Christ</em>, in Naples’ baroque <a href="https://www.museosansevero.it/en/the-sansevero-chapel/">Sansevero Chapel Museum</a> will find their reading of the sculpture is shaped both the Christian religious context established by the chapel museum, and by the sculpture’s central position in the building. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Marble statue of Christ, shown lying down and covered from head to toe with a veila" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/399346/original/file-20210506-21-1tudxsv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/399346/original/file-20210506-21-1tudxsv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=302&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/399346/original/file-20210506-21-1tudxsv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=302&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/399346/original/file-20210506-21-1tudxsv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=302&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/399346/original/file-20210506-21-1tudxsv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=380&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/399346/original/file-20210506-21-1tudxsv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=380&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/399346/original/file-20210506-21-1tudxsv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=380&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">‘The Veiled Christ’ by Giuseppe Sanmartino, Sensevero Chapel Museum, Naples, Italy.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(David Sivyer/Wikimedia Commons)</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Among the factors that regulate what the viewer sees are <a href="https://www.metmuseum.org/connections/virtuosity">virtuosity</a> and <a href="https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/materiality">materiality</a> — the way the artist’s choice of material shapes the meaning of the work they produce.</p>
<p><em>The Veiled Christ</em>, so skillfully carved that it was rumoured to have <a href="https://www.museosansevero.it/en/the-legend-of-the-veil/">been created by alchemy</a>, depicts Christ after death covered by a translucent veil, <a href="https://direct.mit.edu/leon/article/46/1/19/45552/The-Veiled-Christ-of-Cappella-Sansevero-On-Art">through which one can perceive an uncanny degree of detail</a>, including even wounds on his hands and feet. </p>
<p>As with a <a href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/art-terms/p/photorealism">photorealistic</a> painting, the sense of marvel at the maker’s expertise for some may supersede the subject matter. The translucent beauty of white marble and the baroque surroundings of the chapel further situate the artwork as a wondrous object. The polished, luminescent marble suggests the divinity of the figure.</p>
<h2>‘Throw-away image’</h2>
<p>By comparison, the low materiality and association of the snapshot as a throw-away image frames Shearer’s sleepers as <a href="https://momus.ca/the-suffering-body-of-1993-whatever-happened-to-the-abject/">abject bodies</a>, flawed and vulnerable in their unconscious state. Their gestures can equally be read as ungainly.</p>
<p>In a gallery, the sleeping and reclining figures would be less disturbing. When we enter into the rarified space of the white cube, we are primed to see art. While much of it may be beautiful, we know some of it may challenge us. We are prepared to view images critically.</p>
<p>In comparison, situating the images on billboards heightens the viewer’s unease. Normally, images there are easily decoded commercial messages. On the rare occasion that a billboard depicts disconcerting pictures, for example, diseased lungs in an anti-smoking campaign, words provide context.</p>
<p>Seeing an ambiguous image on a billboard triggers the imagination to <a href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/art-terms/n/narrative">construct a narrative</a>. Viewers must reach their own conclusions about the significance. For some viewers this is a pleasant surprise, for others it is mildly perplexing and for a few it can be deeply disturbing.</p>
<p>During the pandemic, <a href="https://theconversation.com/covid-19-and-mental-health-feeling-anguish-is-normal-and-is-not-a-disorder-153784">more so than in normal times, it is difficult to tolerate uncertainty</a> and to process psychologically complex visuals like the figures in Shearer’s series. </p>
<p>The visuals of Shearer’s found images of bodies are, in part, disturbing because we are uncertain what we’re seeing. For those who are patient enough to spend time with them and to engage with their ambiguity, new worlds open and, as a result, one’s own world becomes richer.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/160130/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Catherine Heard does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Examining parallels between Steven Shearer’s billboard images and religious figures of 17th century baroque art allow a consideration of how context is everything when it comes to reading images.
Catherine Heard, Professor, School of Visual Art, University of Windsor
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/154774
2021-03-01T21:14:20Z
2021-03-01T21:14:20Z
Naples memorialized its 17th century plague with a festival for healing, and so should we after COVID-19
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/384135/original/file-20210214-19-1qkrkk1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=188%2C197%2C5703%2C3745&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Monuments are good; so are civic festivals. The 'plague column' at Piazza San Domenico Maggiore, in Naples.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Obelisco_di_San_Domenico,_piazza_San_Domenico_Maggiore_(Napoli)_01.jpg">(Mongolo1984/Wikimedia Commons)</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><a href="https://www.google.com/maps/@40.8483993,14.2552795,3a,75y,280.66h,101.73t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sxx-yvcIB0CmlHiK3aweCqQ!2e0!7i13312!8i6656">A poignant reminder of death</a> stands in Naples, where the old Roman road meets the main college street and the imposing <em>palazzos</em> step back to reveal a sun-drenched plaza. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/386866/original/file-20210228-17-dn0ffz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="The San Domenico column, Naples." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/386866/original/file-20210228-17-dn0ffz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/386866/original/file-20210228-17-dn0ffz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/386866/original/file-20210228-17-dn0ffz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/386866/original/file-20210228-17-dn0ffz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/386866/original/file-20210228-17-dn0ffz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/386866/original/file-20210228-17-dn0ffz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/386866/original/file-20210228-17-dn0ffz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The San Domenico column, Naples, shown in May 2019.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/2.0/">(damian entwistle/Flickr)</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/">CC BY-NC</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The spire of San Domenico — a stone obelisk topped with a <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Saint-Dominic">statue of the saint</a> — is one of Europe’s “<a href="https://daily.jstor.org/how-to-memorialize-a-plague/">plague columns</a>.” Such monuments were erected after <a href="https://doi.org/10.1093/ereh/het013">devastating epidemics in the 17th century</a> to memorialize the religious figures believed to have interceded to stop the spread of disease.</p>
<p>Vienna still has the most famous one, <a href="https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/morbid-monday-plague-columns">though others survive</a>. Of the three columns standing in Naples, <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/4238769?seq=1">only the spire of San Domenico</a> was erected to actually commemorate a plague. As art historian Maria Ann Conelli <a href="https://doi.org/10.2307/4238769">points out</a>, the column shares its form with a type of <a href="https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/344430">temporary funeral monument</a> erected to display the coffin of a prominent citizen in baroque-era Italy. </p>
<p>As the one-year anniversary of the World Health Organization’s declaration of a global pandemic approaches (and as <a href="https://www.ctvnews.ca/health/coronavirus/canada-more-than-doubles-covid-19-vaccine-distribution-this-week-1.5326477">vaccination programs begin</a>), it might finally be time to consider how our modern age wants to remember this plague. </p>
<h2>End-of-plague festival</h2>
<p>Pulitzer-winning art critic Christopher Knight <a href="https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/story/2020-05-05/coronavirus-plague-columns-memorials-trump-tower">recently suggested</a> we should build a new plague column to remember COVID-19 victims. It’s a brilliant idea. But columns take time. The spire of San Domenico, begun two years after <a href="https://wellcomecollection.org/works/cav46qt4/items?canvas=1&langCode=ita">the 1656 epidemic</a> <a href="https://doi.org/10.2307/4238769">took 79 years to complete</a>.</p>
<p>The Neapolitan civic officials of 1656 have another lesson to teach about how to remember a plague: they put together a grand celebration to mark the containment of the epidemic and help heal a wounded city. For 10 days (instead of the usual eight), beginning on Dec. 1, 1656, the city was transformed by festivities both solemn and joyous.</p>
<p>“After such calamity, and in such a short time,” <a href="https://reader.digitale-sammlungen.de/de/fs1/object/display/bsb11345118_00184.html">says a contemporary Jesuit account</a>, the city put together a celebration that was “if not the greatest, as is often said, then at least, no one can deny, one not unequal to those seen in Naples in the midst of its greatest happiness.” </p>
<p><a href="https://reader.digitale-sammlungen.de/de/fs1/object/display/bsb11345118_00007.html">This source</a>, a Jesuit text that celebrated miracles performed during the plague, had reason to put things in the best light. Yet it describes events typical of <a href="https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004251830_014">Neapolitan feasts</a>, for which <a href="https://books.google.ca/books?id=HTtiQgAACAAJ&dq=Feste+Ed+Apparati+Civili+E+Religiosi+in+Napoli+De+Viceregno&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiC06aOi47vAhWHrp4KHZjyD6MQ6AEwAHoECAIQAQ">there are many sources</a>. </p>
<p>Painters, sculptors, musicians, the military, clergy, bureaucrats and politicians all had a role to play. As the procession moved through the streets, people worshipped before spectacular new altars and statues, and listened to musical performances and the thunder of artillery.</p>
<p>“As much a spectacle of beauty as of piety,” <a href="https://reader.digitale-sammlungen.de/de/fs1/object/display/bsb11345118_00182.html">the author wrote</a>. “Not a simple tribute, but a full triumph.”</p>
<h2>Commissioning artists</h2>
<p>The festivities began with a more sombre event on the evening of Dec. 1. The officials responsible for combating the disease, the deputies of health, <a href="https://reader.digitale-sammlungen.de/de/fs1/object/display/bsb11345118_00175.html">sat in the cathedral</a> facing a <a href="https://books.google.ca/books?id=vaioJXFbhS0C&pg=PA122#v=onepage&q&f=false">bejeweled</a> statue of Saint Francis Xavier as he was proclaimed protector of the city. </p>
<p>Six months earlier, as the bodies were piling up in the streets, the deputies <a href="https://books.google.ca/books?id=vaioJXFbhS0C&pg=PA43#v=onepage&q&f=false">had prayed to</a> him to intercede and save Naples. On that Saturday in December, the voices of four choirs resounded through the cathedral in a work of thanksgiving, the <em>Te Deum</em>. </p>
<p>“In the number and quality of singers, it was the best of the whole festival,” <a href="https://reader.digitale-sammlungen.de/de/fs1/object/display/bsb11345118_00175.html">wrote the author</a>.</p>
<p>Though the religious character of that night might seem striking today, in 1656 all civic officials in Naples professed the Roman Catholic faith and believed it was their duty to ask saints to perform miracles. In June, the Neapolitan city council had in fact <a href="https://doi.org/10.2307/3046040">commissioned artist Mattia Preti</a> to paint new frescoes depicting saints to be mounted above the city’s gates in order to protect against the plague.</p>
<p>This religious zeal was just one part of a complex civic life — and struggle against an epidemic — with some bracingly familiar features.</p>
<p>There were conspiracy theories about the origins of the virus — <a href="https://books.google.ca/books?id=IDM1gZMr-tkC&pg=PA27#v=onepage&q&f=false">that it was</a> “artificially spread to kill the people” as vengeance for an <a href="https://www.historytoday.com/archive/masaniellos-naples-revolt-against-spain">earlier uprising</a>. There was the problem of where to bury the bodies. And there was the heartbreak <a href="https://books.google.ca/books?id=IDM1gZMr-tkC&pg=PA63#v=onepage&q&f=false">over shuttered</a> theatres, schools and businesses.</p>
<p>“The whole city had become a tomb,” <a href="https://books.google.ca/books?id=IDM1gZMr-tkC&pg=PA40#v=onepage&q&f=false">one observer recalled</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/387038/original/file-20210301-17-1ujryw6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Painting of people struck by plague." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/387038/original/file-20210301-17-1ujryw6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/387038/original/file-20210301-17-1ujryw6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=425&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/387038/original/file-20210301-17-1ujryw6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=425&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/387038/original/file-20210301-17-1ujryw6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=425&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/387038/original/file-20210301-17-1ujryw6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=534&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/387038/original/file-20210301-17-1ujryw6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=534&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/387038/original/file-20210301-17-1ujryw6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=534&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Piazza Mercatello in Naples during the plague of 1656, painting by Domenico Gargiulo.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Museo Nazionale di San Martino/Wikimedia Commons)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>For the city in the shadow <a href="https://www.nesdis.noaa.gov/content/this-day-history-eruption-mt-vesuvius-1631">of Mount Vesuvius</a>, the December feast must have felt like an eruption of joy. By Sunday night, the solemn religious processions gave way to “the great rejoicing of fireworks and lights.” Neapolitans were so familiar with fireworks displays from past festivals that the account of them <a href="https://reader.digitale-sammlungen.de/de/fs1/object/display/bsb11345118_00181.html">simply says</a> that they, “being of the usual sort, don’t need their own particular recounting.”</p>
<h2>Social connection, joy</h2>
<p>Today, we are all hungry to enjoy the familiar things we did before the pandemic. Neapolitans were too. As a city facing <a href="https://www.wiley.com/en-us/The+Revolt+of+Naples-p-9780745607245">economic, political and religious divisions</a>, Naples celebrated these crucial festivals in order to bring together the city’s disparate parts for a few precious days. </p>
<p>Festivals admittedly served to glorify favoured Catholic saints and strengthen the viceroyalty. But they also put artists to work, fostered social connection and allowed for a brief spasm of joy. Some historians, <a href="https://jhupbooks.press.jhu.edu/title/becoming-neapolitan">like John Marino</a>, emphasize the former; others, like <a href="https://manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk/9780719078224">Gabriel Guarino</a>, the latter.</p>
<p>When we’re finally ready to get back to normal after COVID-19 will we be content to mark the event with a shopping spree, a haircut and a meal? Or will we take a page from the Neapolitan playbook, updated for our pluralistic world, and come together for a (responsible, socially distanced) feast of music, fellowship and fireworks <a href="https://theconversation.com/coronavirus-event-cancellations-communication-is-key-to-retaining-public-trust-133594">that could aid social, cultural and economic</a> recovery right now? </p>
<p>Let’s commission spectacular works of music, art and sculpture, as the Neapolitans did, and prepare to revel in eight days of celebration.</p>
<p>If it goes well, we can make it 10.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/154774/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>I previously received a SSHRC Doctoral Fellowship and a University of Toronto Dünnhaupt Travel Fellowship for archival research in Naples.</span></em></p>
As the one-year anniversary of the World Health Organization’s declaration of a pandemic approaches, it might be time to consider how our modern age wants to remember this plague.
Keith Johnston, Adjunct Lecturer in History, Algoma University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/154295
2021-02-09T13:44:42Z
2021-02-09T13:44:42Z
Proposed law would give minister the power to block councils from removing disputed statues
<p>In the midst of an unprecedented peacetime national emergency, the UK government is using valuable parliamentary time proposing a change in the law so that anyone seeking to remove or alter a statue, monument or plaque must first seek planning permission. Far from making decisions of this kind more democratic, this law removes agency from local communities to make decisions about the representation of their own heritage.</p>
<p>Robert Jenrick, secretary of state for housing, communities and local government, <a href="https://hansard.parliament.uk/Commons/2021-01-18/debates/2101187000013/PlanningAndHeritageHistoricStatuesPlaquesMemorialsAndMonuments#contribution-D14344A4-1D38-45AD-BFB6-38A7A06E8997">told parliament</a> that he intends to take a personally interventionist approach to these decisions and tighten planning rules:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>I would like to make clear that, as the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, I have wide discretion to “call in” planning applications or recover appeals for my own determination, not least because of the controversy attached to such decisions. I will not hesitate to use those powers in relation to applications and appeals involving historic statues, plaques, memorials or monuments where I consider such action is necessary to reflect the Government’s planning policies as set out above.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Writing in <a href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/01/16/will-save-britains-statues-woke-militants-want-censor-past/">The Telegraph</a>, the minister cited various examples to demonstrate the need for this law, none of which are based in reality.</p>
<p>Jenrick alleges that totemic figures of national mythology are under attack, writing that it is “absurd and shameful” that Winston Churchill’s statue would be “questioned”. The <a href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/06/19/cenotaph-flag-suspect-arrested-police-ask-help-identifying-violent/">acts of vandalism</a> against his statue in Westminster and the Cenotaph during the summer’s Black Lives Matter protests have become highly emotive touchstones, useful in conjuring the image of a baying mob seeking to tear down monuments across the country. To put them in a more objective context, however, they were, in fact, criminal acts by a few individuals among tens of thousands of peaceful demonstrators.</p>
<p>Those criminal acts and the police response to them would not fall under the jurisdiction of the law Jenrick is proposing, so to deploy the example in this context is spurious, if not inflammatory. Nor is there any serious suggestion that Churchill’s Westminster statue will be removed.</p>
<p>What’s more, a further examination of cases on the ground shows that local authorities have generally been measured and cautious when debates arise about these monuments.</p>
<h2>Council consultations</h2>
<p>Take the example of Lord Nelson, another figure Jenrick claims is not “safe from the revisionist purge” because Lambeth council has suggested renaming a local street currently called Nelson’s Row. A <a href="https://www.lambeth.gov.uk/sites/default/files/projects_attachements/101807%20statues%20and%20memorials%20ART.pdf">closer look at the council’s public consultation shows</a>, however, that this again is an emotive sleight of hand on the minister’s part: no one actually knows for sure who the road is named after, and even if it were named for Lord Nelson, it is considered “low priority” by the council and is unlikely to be renamed any time soon.</p>
<p>Elsewhere, <a href="https://londonnewsonline.co.uk/statue-protectors-can-sleep-easy-nelson-galleries-at-national-maritime-museum-set-to-remain/">institutions associated with Nelson</a> have decided to retain his name. There is no official suggestion of any alteration to his monument in Trafalgar Square.</p>
<p>The minister’s assertion that “due process has been overridden” is not therefore supported by any evidence he offers.</p>
<p>Plymouth has seen the only significant legal challenge in the UK to recent changes. There, a resident launched a legal appeal against the removal of slave trader John Hawkins’ name from a city square. This was on the grounds that there was no “proper consultation”. The claim was rejected as <a href="https://www.plymouthherald.co.uk/news/plymouth-news/court-hears-legal-challenge-renaming-4700434">due process clearly had been followed</a>, further demonstrating that there is little need for the new law. Also rejected in court was the resident’s preposterous claim that the new name, that of black footballer Jack Leslie, was not appropriate because it was “racist”.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Two signs pinned to a street sign informing the public that the council plans to rename Sir John Hawkins Square." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/383230/original/file-20210209-17-hcyia1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/383230/original/file-20210209-17-hcyia1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/383230/original/file-20210209-17-hcyia1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/383230/original/file-20210209-17-hcyia1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/383230/original/file-20210209-17-hcyia1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/383230/original/file-20210209-17-hcyia1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/383230/original/file-20210209-17-hcyia1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Signs in Plymouth notify the public about the plan to rename Sir John Hawkins Square.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In Leeds, meanwhile, following an act of vandalism the council commissioned a <a href="https://www.yorkshireeveningpost.co.uk/news/people/stories-behind-statues-leeds-set-be-re-written-reflect-modern-context-after-black-lives-matters-protests-prompted-council-review-3006446">report and public consultation</a> taking exactly the type of considered and responsible approach Jenrick appears to support. It <a href="https://democracy.leeds.gov.uk/documents/s210868/Statues%2520Review%2520Cover%2520Report%2520091020.pdf">ultimately recommended</a> that a single frieze should be given greater context with a plaque explaining its content. Rather than removing statues, it proposed increasing representation with new public artworks and renewed work on the city’s public heritage sites.</p>
<h2>Politicising decisions</h2>
<p>In requiring full planning permission, thus allowing appeals to the minister, any aggrieved individual can hold up decisions about public spaces, even if they have been made via democratic processes. Even if they don’t win their case, they can create additional costs on councils and the courts at a time of great financial pressure.</p>
<p>The appeal process also offers the current and any future minister, as well as local MPs or councillors, an opportunity to further weaponise heritage by intervening whenever they feel it suits their political aims. The focus of these interventions is likely to be on signalling to an electoral base rather than on encouraging broad engagement and representation of the democratic will of local communities.</p>
<p>As Jenrick correctly explains in his article, statues in the UK were erected in the first place “by public subscription, by a borough, village or a parish”. By his own implication, councils, community groups and institutions, therefore, have the power to re-evaluate their heritage sites without central government interference.</p>
<p>As consultations take place across the country, the real challenge is that politicians of all stripes embed broad engagement across all communities on a permanent basis, not just while popular pressure remains high.</p>
<p>This law will not further empower councils to do that. Instead it politicises, divides, and it makes it harder for councils to make democratic decisions about how heritage is represented in public spaces.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/154295/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Matthew Stallard has previously received funding from the ESRC and AHRC.</span></em></p>
Robert Jenrick says due process is under attack – so he’s handing himself the power to grant the final say about statues and street names.
Matthew Stallard, Researcher, Centre for the Study of Legacies of British Slave-Ownership, UCL
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/149120
2020-11-10T20:53:34Z
2020-11-10T20:53:34Z
‘Melly Shum Hates Her Job’ but Europeans love this work by Canadian artist Ken Lum
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/368122/original/file-20201108-15-1kho7mn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=38%2C209%2C2050%2C1369&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Artwork 'Melly Shum Hates Her Job' by Ken Lum hangs in the Witte de Withstraat district in Rotterdam, The Netherlands, shown May 2008.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Ken Lum/Wikimedia Commons)</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Sure, she’s smiling. But the tired eyes, cramped desk and limp hand on dated office gear tell another story: Melly Shum hates her job. Perhaps she works in what anthropologist David Graeber has in mind in his book <a href="https://www.vox.com/2018/5/8/17308744/bullshit-jobs-book-david-graeber-occupy-wall-street-karl-marx"><em>Bullshit Jobs</em></a>? </p>
<p>Yet, 30 years ago, she was launched into a peculiar art world notoriety that recently took a startling turn. <em>Melly Shum Hates Her Job</em> is the name of acclaimed Canadian artist <a href="http://kenlumart.com/">Ken Lum’s</a> 1989 piece that developed an urban public cult following <a href="https://hyperallergic.com/591828/kunstinstituut-melly-formerly-known-as-witte-de-with-center">in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, and has now inspired the renaming of a museum in that city</a>. </p>
<p>To many viewers, this happened precisely because there’s nothing special about the Melly Shum in this picture: <a href="http://www.harvarddesignmagazine.org/issues/46/pretending-to-work">Like many people, she is stuck in a soul-destroying, Sisyphean grind</a> with no obvious way out. As Lum notes, the red, vibrating <a href="http://kenlumart.com/melly-shum-hates-her-job">“HATES” speaks of “the frustration of Melly Shum even though the voice of the text is ambiguous</a>.” </p>
<p>There’s a tradition of artists highlighting everyday heroism, like when <a href="https://press.princeton.edu/books/paperback/9780691009032/the-painting-of-modern-life">Edouard Manet and the Impressionists depicted the streets and bars of the 1870s</a> or American artist <a href="https://hyperallergic.com/355255/how-mierle-laderman-ukeles-turned-maintenance-work-into-art/">Mierle Laderman Ukeles</a> shook hands with 8,500 New York City sanitation workers a century later. </p>
<p>When Lum produced this image as part of his remarkable “<a href="http://kenlumart.com/untitled-collection-2/">Portrait-Logo</a>” series, he drew on that lineage. </p>
<p>But he also took his cue from background and family experiences that he describes in his recent essay collection, <a href="http://www.concordia.ca/press/everythingisrelevant.html"><em>Everything is Relevant</em></a>: the 12-hour days he spent picking strawberries with his mother in fields outside of Vancouver; his grandmother’s decades of toil in a New York City garment factory. </p>
<p>Perhaps that lived experience explains some of why this image struck a chord.</p>
<p>Many of Lum’s pieces zero in on tensions between appearances and meaning, unsettling <a href="https://www.gallery.ca/magazine/your-collection/unsettling-the-viewer-the-art-of-ken-lum">viewers’ assumptions and perceptions</a>. The piece has been read both as surprising viewers by representing <a href="https://www.createastir.ca/articles/vasarely-vag-op-art-five-things">a universal feeling not with a white person but with a person of Chinese descent</a> and as raising questions about the specific causes of Melly’s hatred: Does she face racialized, class- or gender-based <a href="https://www.gallery.ca/magazine/your-collection/unsettling-the-viewer-the-art-of-ken-lum">discrimination</a> in her job or work opportunities?</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Woman in glasses shown on the outside of a building." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/368415/original/file-20201109-21-d3l7g5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/368415/original/file-20201109-21-d3l7g5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/368415/original/file-20201109-21-d3l7g5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/368415/original/file-20201109-21-d3l7g5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/368415/original/file-20201109-21-d3l7g5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/368415/original/file-20201109-21-d3l7g5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/368415/original/file-20201109-21-d3l7g5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Once an advertisement for an inaugural art show, the ‘Melly Shum Hates Her Job’ billboard is now a permanent fixture on the exterior wall of the Rotterdam centre formerly called the Witte de With Center for Contemporary Art, which recently announced it’s renaming itself The Kunstinstituut Melly.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/">(Ira Smirnova/Flickr)</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Struck a chord</h2>
<p>In 1990, the year after Lum produced the work, he was invited to have a <a href="http://kenlumart.com/melly-shum-hates-her-job/">solo exhibition to inaugurate a new gallery in Rotterdam, the Witte de With Center for Contemporary Art</a>. </p>
<p>Lum explained to me how the piece gained its iconic status. The gallery wanted to install a version of <em>Melly Shum Hates Her Job</em> on the building’s exterior to promote the show. “For whatever reason, I asked if the image could be just the work, without my name, without the dates of the show or the associated talks and so on,” he said. When the gallery agreed — quite casually — the piece shifted from advertising to monument. And, as monuments do, this one found its public.</p>
<p>When the exhibition ended and the piece came down, the gallery directors received a flood of letters and phone calls asking where it had gone. That’s when, Lum says, the Witte de With inquired about reinstalling the piece. </p>
<p>Lum asked the gallery if “any reasons had been given for wanting the piece back, because it seemed weird,” he recalls. His doubts fell away when the gallery responded that one person had said: “Every city deserves a monument to people who hate their jobs.” His jaw dropped, he told me, “because it was just so good. And I said, yeah, OK. I am totally fine with this.”</p>
<h2>Growing popularity</h2>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="A man in glasses." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/368381/original/file-20201109-17-1ikdafi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/368381/original/file-20201109-17-1ikdafi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=1067&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/368381/original/file-20201109-17-1ikdafi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=1067&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/368381/original/file-20201109-17-1ikdafi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=1067&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/368381/original/file-20201109-17-1ikdafi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1340&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/368381/original/file-20201109-17-1ikdafi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1340&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/368381/original/file-20201109-17-1ikdafi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1340&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Artist Ken Lum.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/">(Simon Fraser University/Flickr)</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In the 30 years since, a lot has changed. Lum has become one of Canada’s most internationally influential artists, with an extensive exhibition history, <a href="https://en.ggarts.ca/kenneth-robert-lum">a Governor General’s Award</a>, an <a href="https://www.gg.ca/en/honours/recipients/146-10348">Order of Canada</a> and a named <a href="https://penntoday.upenn.edu/news/ken-lum-appointed-marilyn-jordan-taylor-presidential-professorship">professorship at the University of Pennsylvania</a>. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.fkawdw.nl/en/">The Witte de With Center</a> has evolved into a globally recognized institution, while the district where it is located, <a href="https://www.cityrotterdam.com/en/visit/streets-rotterdam/witte-de-withstraat/">Witte de Withstraat</a>, has gone from a non-descript strip to one of Rotterdam’s trendiest areas. Today, <em>Melly Shum Hates Her Job</em> has travelled the world to appear in the Dutch pavilion of the Shanghai Expo 2010 <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/B2Mm1TToR1V">and beyond</a>.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, someone else who travelled the world was the gallery’s namesake, <a href="https://www.fkawdw.nl/en/our_program/events/timeline_2_the_life_and_times_of_witte_corneliszoon_de_with_1599_1658">Witte Corneliszoon de With</a>. De With was a 17th-century Dutch naval officer who led violent colonialist expeditions on behalf of the Dutch East India Company.</p>
<p>When the gallery took its name from the street fronting the centre 30 years ago, it made some sense as it helped people locate the building, but today it’s embarrassing. The gallery foregrounded this point in 2017, when the centre hosted an exhibition about the Netherlands actively forgetting its colonial history. </p>
<h2>Monumentalizing the overlooked</h2>
<p>That fall, the organization started a renaming process. Last month it announced that <a href="https://www.artforum.com/news/former-witte-de-with-announces-name-change-to-kunstinstituut-melly-84168">starting Jan. 27, 2021, it will be called the Kunstinstituut Melly</a>.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1316656719477473280"}"></div></p>
<p>“I feel that the work belongs more to the community than to me, given that they’ve activated it far beyond what I ever anticipated,” Lum says, “so it makes sense.” </p>
<p>The practice of monumentalizing the overlooked remains crucial to Lum. “I’m both cynical and optimistic,” he tells me. “I see all these museums taking real steps to diversify, but I think of all the artists of colour and difference who gave up. I see the unprecedented breadth of consciousness among so many people, but I see that just the other day the Philadelphia police killed a Black man, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/27/us/philadelphia-police-shooting-walter-wallace-jr.html">Walter Wallace Jr.</a>”</p>
<p><em>Lum will be at the University of Ottawa for the <a href="https://www.gallery.ca/whats-on/calendar/stonecroft-foundation-visiting-artist-lecture-series-ken-lum">sixth Annual Stonecroft Foundation Visiting Artist Lecture on Nov. 12, 2020, at 6 p.m.</a>, in conversation with Josée Drouin-Brisebois, senior curator of contemporary art at the National Gallery of Canada.</em></p>
<p><em>This is a corrected version of a story originally published on Nov. 10, 2020. The earlier story said ‘Melly Shum Hates Her Job’ appeared at the Dutch pavilion at the 2008 Gwangju Biennial instead of at Shanghai Expo 2010.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/149120/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Charles Reeve does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
A Rotterdam art centre removed its colonial-era name and is renaming itself ‘The Kunstinstituut Melly,’ to honour the city’s 30-year love affair with Ken Lum’s iconic work.
Charles Reeve, Associate professor, Visual & Critical Studies/chair, Arts & Science program area, OCAD University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/146428
2020-10-07T17:17:19Z
2020-10-07T17:17:19Z
Nuit Blanche Toronto goes virtual to change how people see art and public space
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/361738/original/file-20201005-20-152z0r7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=6%2C16%2C1464%2C503&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Artist Joi T. Arcand explains 'Never Surrender,' 'translates a ...1980s Canadian pop song into the Cree language and recontextualiz[es] the lyrics as an anthem of Indigenous sovereignty.' Here, the image layered over a photo of a Winnipeg sidewalk.
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Noor)</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>In streets and kitchens across Canada, viewers and participants can interact with virtual public art to be reminded of diverse histories and communities. This is through <a href="https://www.toronto.ca/explore-enjoy/festivals-events/nuitblanche/2020-program/nuit-in-your-neighbourhood/">Nuit In Your Neighbourhood</a>, a new virtual component of Toronto’s ongoing <a href="https://www.toronto.ca/explore-enjoy/festivals-events/nuitblanche/">Nuit Blanche festival</a>, which runs until Oct. 12. </p>
<p>Nehiyaw text-based artist Joi T. Arcand’s artwork celebrates just this when she <a href="https://www.toronto.ca/explore-enjoy/festivals-events/nuitblanche/2020-program/nuit-in-your-neighbourhood/never-surrender/">writes “Never Surrender” in Cree syllabics</a> to honour her own heritage and efforts of solidarity-building between Indigenous communities.</p>
<p>The neon words are delivered to viewers’ spaces in three dimensions through virtual reality and augmented reality technologies. Viewers visit the Nuit in Your Neighbourhood site on a smartphone or tablet, click on avatars of the images, and then can use their device <a href="https://nowtoronto.com/culture/art-and-design/what-you-cant-miss-at-virtual-nuit-blanche-2020">to photograph artists’ works wherever they direct their cameras</a> (some versions of devices may require users to download an app).</p>
<p>Nuit Blanche’s <a href="https://www.toronto.ca/explore-enjoy/festivals-events/nuitblanche/2020-program/artistic-director-julie-nagam">artistic director, Julie Nagam</a>,
brings an approach to curating art that focuses on coalition-building through dialogues and collaboration. I am a research assistant to Nagam <a href="https://www.toronto.ca/explore-enjoy/festivals-events/nuitblanche">working on Nuit Blanche programming</a> and I research Islamic art histories and transcultural curatorial practices.</p>
<p>Both the COVID-19 pandemic and recent debates around public heritage and public monuments shape how Nuit Blanche Toronto is seeking to remap cities. The festival features artists who imagine different futures for BIPOC communities that have been marginalized, and whose work realizes a more liveable present through remapping what an urban space and a community can be. </p>
<h2>Re-visioning community & public space</h2>
<p>Now, when many people globally are facing another COVID-19 lockdown and the unknowns of stepping into yet another pandemic month, it would be a cliché to state that most of us are exhausted. Many of us are feeling disconnected from what we might have once called community and connection. Both social distancing measures imposed at the outbreak of COVID-19 and vigilant transformations of shared public spaces seen in the <a href="https://www.theartnewspaper.com/news/canada-addresses-its-monumental-problem">removal of colonial monuments</a> have led some <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P1ddnNfSE_sd&feature=youtu.be">people to announce the end of public spaces</a>. </p>
<p>Our societies are reckoning with the fact that public spaces marked by these monuments are not accessible or desirable for everybody. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/why-activists-are-vandalizing-statues-to-colonialism-129750">Why activists are vandalizing statues to colonialism</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>While we’re witnessing the end of a public space as we know it, it is certainly not the end of its possibilities. A recent panel discussion, “Thinking Through Public Space in the Time of COVID,” was part of <a href="https://www.toronto.ca/explore-enjoy/festivals-events/nuitblanche/nuit-talks/">Nuit Talks</a>, a series of in-depth conversations with Nuit Blanche artists, scholars and curators. During the discussion, Mazyar Mortazavi, board chair for <a href="https://www.thebentway.ca/about/">The Bentway, a public art space and park located under Toronto’s Gardiner Expressway</a>, said: “<a href="https://www.thespacebetweenus.ca/programming/thinking-through-public-space-in-the-time-of-covid-and-how-people-will-return-to-public-space-and-public-art">Grief is the first step for recovery</a>.” </p>
<p>There are infinite possibilities for how viewers might engage with Nuit in Your Neighbourhood artworks, from the safety of their own homes or walking through public space. </p>
<h2>Nuit in Your Neighbourhood</h2>
<p>A common thread that ties together the commissioned works in Nuit in Your Neighbourhood is the artists’ engagement with virtual technologies to critically elevate marginalized histories. Such practices are also seen where Indigenous <a href="https://canadianart.ca/issues/spring-2019-spacetime/">artists</a>, <a href="https://hyperallergic.com/449951/biennale-dart-contemporain-autochtone-baca-montreal/">curators</a> and <a href="https://canadianart.ca/essays/making-space-in-indigenous-art-for-bull-dykes-and-gender-weirdos/">writers</a> make and imagine space in art exhibitions and in contemporary arts commentary. </p>
<p>Nagam has approached decolonial curating through similar gestures of affirmation and presence. Alongside curator Jaimie Isaac, Nagam curated the groundbreaking exhibition, “<a href="https://wag.ca/art/stories/insurgence-resurgence-wag/">INSURGENCE/RESURGENCE</a>” at the Winnipeg Art Gallery in 2017 that created opportunities for a young cohort of artists and BIPOC communities in the city. To this day, it has been the largest exhibition on contemporary Indigenous art in the country.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/GwuuFj2mpx0?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">‘INSURGENCE/RESURGENCE’ exhibition at the Winnipeg Art Gallery.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Space making</h2>
<p>With Nuit in Your Neighbourhood images, a person might interact with artists’ images in their domestic or shared public space.</p>
<p>Consider <a href="https://www.toronto.ca/explore-enjoy/festivals-events/nuitblanche/2020-program/nuit-in-your-neighbourhood/when-the-fam-lose-faith-hold-them-up/"><em>When The Fam Lose Faith, Hold Them Up</em></a>, by Toronto-based photographic artist <a href="https://yungyemi.com">Yung Yemi</a>. Viewers could choose to mark the distance <a href="https://theeyeopener.com/2020/07/egerton-ryerson-statue-defaced-by-protesters">gained through Black Lives Matter protests against colonial monuments</a>
by photographing the disgraced statue of <a href="https://theeyeopener.com/2020/07/egerton-ryerson-statue-defaced-by-protesters/">Egerton Ryerson</a> in Toronto with this image layered overtop.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Two heads facing away from each other and connected at the hair." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/361692/original/file-20201005-14-1sgqkxd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/361692/original/file-20201005-14-1sgqkxd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/361692/original/file-20201005-14-1sgqkxd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/361692/original/file-20201005-14-1sgqkxd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/361692/original/file-20201005-14-1sgqkxd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/361692/original/file-20201005-14-1sgqkxd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/361692/original/file-20201005-14-1sgqkxd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Yung Yemi, ‘When The Fam Lose Faith, Hold Them Up’ (2020).</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Yung Yemi)</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In the digital medium, the artist’s depicted Afro-futurist figures can travel and establish their own relations, and are both ephemeral and fluid. They bring into reality what Toronto’s own philosopher and communications theorist Marshall McLuhan prophesized: “<a href="https://books.google.ca/books/about/The_Medium_is_the_Massage.html?id=_1kNAQAAMAAJ&redir_esc=y">The medium is the message</a>.”</p>
<p>Another artist whose work invites people to mark space is video and performance artist <a href="https://www.rah-eleh.com">Rah Eleh’s</a> <em>#Bluegirl</em>. This work is an immersive video that <a href="http://www.rah-eleh.com/bluegirl/">considers self-immolation practices</a> involving young women in the Middle East and <a href="https://www.toronto.ca/explore-enjoy/festivals-events/nuitblanche/2020-program/nuit-in-your-neighbourhood/bluegirl-supernova/">Persian-speaking</a> nations in Central Asia.</p>
<p>In <em>#Bluegirl</em>, Eleh visualizes alternatives of survival for these figures that massage out the possibilities of not only the present, but the cosmic past and future.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="(A woman playing a stringed instrument sits against a purple night environment)" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/361707/original/file-20201005-16-1repeai.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/361707/original/file-20201005-16-1repeai.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=307&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/361707/original/file-20201005-16-1repeai.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=307&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/361707/original/file-20201005-16-1repeai.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=307&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/361707/original/file-20201005-16-1repeai.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=386&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/361707/original/file-20201005-16-1repeai.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=386&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/361707/original/file-20201005-16-1repeai.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=386&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Detail from Rah Eleh’s ‘#Bluegirl’ (2020).</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Memories of origins</h2>
<p><a href="https://www.maureengruben.com">Maureen Gruben’s</a> <em>Kagisaaluq</em> visualizes cultural traditions to demonstrate their vitality and survival. <em>Kagisaaluq</em> presents a “<a href="https://www.toronto.ca/explore-enjoy/festivals-events/nuitblanche/2020-program/nuit-in-your-neighbourhood/kagisaaluq/">fox stretcher</a>,” an Inuvialuit tool to stretch and preserve animal skins carved by Gruben’s father to help the family and community thrive in the Arctic. In reproducing this, <em>Kagisaaluq</em> feels as if it reorders space and time to honour traditional forms of survival and knowledge. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A fox stretcher, an Inuvialuit tool." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/361696/original/file-20201005-20-1or1caq.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/361696/original/file-20201005-20-1or1caq.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=200&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/361696/original/file-20201005-20-1or1caq.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=200&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/361696/original/file-20201005-20-1or1caq.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=200&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/361696/original/file-20201005-20-1or1caq.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=251&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/361696/original/file-20201005-20-1or1caq.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=251&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/361696/original/file-20201005-20-1or1caq.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=251&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Maureen Gruben, ‘Kagisaaluq’ (2020).</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Artist Chun Hua Catherine Dong has discussed the idea that tradition needs to be expanded. <a href="https://chunhuacatherinedong.com"><em>Skin Deep</em> is</a> the artist’s most recent exploration in an <a href="https://www.aceart.org/visual-poetics-of-embodied-shame-chun-hua-catherine-dong">ongoing series</a>, where faces are wrapped by different Chinese silk fabrics. </p>
<p>Dong has noted she <a href="https://www.toronto.ca/explore-enjoy/festivals-events/nuitblanche/2020-program/nuit-in-your-neighbourhood/skin-deep">is not only challenging patterns of sexism in China, but also the “othering” of Chinese Canadian subjects through racism in Canada</a>. </p>
<p>When explored in its augmented reality construction, threads in the form of a fluttering butterfly start to lift from the face. For me, this signals a slow but enduring deconstruction of tradition.</p>
<h2>Solidarity across cultures, peoples</h2>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="A square image of fluttering silks superimposed atop a backyard fence." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/361937/original/file-20201006-16-1w8fdvp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/361937/original/file-20201006-16-1w8fdvp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=750&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/361937/original/file-20201006-16-1w8fdvp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=750&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/361937/original/file-20201006-16-1w8fdvp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=750&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/361937/original/file-20201006-16-1w8fdvp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=943&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/361937/original/file-20201006-16-1w8fdvp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=943&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/361937/original/file-20201006-16-1w8fdvp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=943&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Chun Hua Catherine Dong’s image ‘Skin Deep,’ is layered over an image of a fence in the author’s backyard, Sept 28, 2020.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Nagam’s prioritization of BIPOC artists living in diverse cultural conditions generates solidarities across diverse cultures and peoples. From an esthetic perspective, what is of lasting remembrance is an encounter between the artwork and audience. </p>
<p>In the expanded universe of augmented reality and virtual reality, the artworks engender what curator and artist Amalia Mesa-Bains has referred to as “<a href="https://searchworks.stanford.edu/view/9581566">inter-ethnic intimacy</a>,” borne out of exchange. </p>
<p>Within processes of play and exploration, audience members are invited to understand and feel the different layers and propositions of how space is made. When we are longing for the rush of the Nuit crowd, we are, instead, offered deep connections with other people and other communities, where multiplicity is the work.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/146428/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Noor Bhangu works as a Research Assistant for Nuit Blanche Toronto. She receives funding from Ryerson University and the Manitoba Arts Council. </span></em></p>
Both the COVID-19 pandemic and urgent debates around public heritage and monuments shape how Nuit Blanche Toronto is seeking to engage artists and viewers in remapping cities.
Noor Bhangu, PhD student, Communication and Culture, Toronto Metropolitan University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/129695
2020-01-14T19:07:55Z
2020-01-14T19:07:55Z
Artists help communities during a crisis, not hinder. Why are we still told they don’t matter?
<p>Artists are again finding themselves at the receiving end of criticism over funding.</p>
<p>A mural on the wall of a fire station funded through the Western Australia Percent for Art scheme has met with a <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-01-09/emergency-services-levy-money-spent-on-wa-fire-station-artworks/11853124">hostile reaction</a> in the light of the bushfire crisis.</p>
<p>In WA all new public buildings costing $2 million or more must spend 1% of the building costs on public art projects – a bipartisan initiative since 1989. </p>
<p>Public art plays an important role in connecting communities, humanising the environment and giving a community a unique identity, but WA Shadow Minister for Emergency Services Steve Thomas told the ABC “I think it is time for this policy to end”</p>
<p>“[It] is more important to put that money into the equipment [emergency services] require rather than art work to decorate the building,” he said.</p>
<p>Artists are a critical community resource, but this criticism is a familiar refrain in Australia where arts practice is seen as non-essential.</p>
<p>The federal government determined in December 2019 the arts no longer matter to the nation by <a href="https://www.artshub.com.au/news-article/news/public-policy/artshub/department-of-arts-axed-in-government-power-play-259388">disappearing the arts</a> from mention as a governmental responsibility and continuing to cut arts funding. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/remember-the-arts-departments-and-budgets-disappear-as-politics-backs-culture-into-a-dead-end-128110">Remember the arts? Departments and budgets disappear as politics backs culture into a dead end</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Crucial fundraisers</h2>
<p>Across the country, the average income of artists <a href="http://www.australiacouncil.gov.au/research/making-art-work/">from their artwork is A$18,800</a>, yet artists have raised millions of dollars in support of the 2020 bushfire crisis.</p>
<p>Comedian Celeste Barber has raised <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-01-09/celeste-barber-bushfire-donations-fundraisers/11852588">over $50 million</a> from more than 1.2 million people to help those who need it.</p>
<p>Pink, Elton John, Metallica, Nicole Kidman and Keith Urban, Chris Hemsworth, Kylie and Danni Minogue – to name only a handful – have <a href="https://news.yahoo.com/australian-bushfires-celebrity-donations-kylie-minogue-chris-hemsworth-104047775.html">personally donated</a> large amounts of their own money to help fighters and victims. </p>
<p>Visual artist Scott Marsh <a href="https://www.news.com.au/national/nsw-act/news/someone-needs-to-pull-their-finger-out-artist-raises-60k-by-mocking-pm-in-controversial-mural/news-story/c7b23faf06c2e803949eb9fa9b11b995">raised more than $60,000</a> by painting a mural in Chippendale lampooning Scott Morrison. </p>
<p>The Stardust Circus prevented a blackout at the Ulladulla Evacuation Centre by <a href="https://www.facebook.com/sydneymorningherald/photos/its-the-aussie-spirit-you-come-and-help-the-stardust-circus-saved-the-ulladulla-/10158311981256264/">lending their generator</a>. Theatre companies are <a href="https://www.artshub.com.au/news-article/news/trends-and-analysis/richard-watts/six-ways-artists-can-take-action-on-bushfires-259505">organising collections</a> at their performances for bushfire relief.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.abc.net.au/triplej/news/musicnews/bushfire-benefit-show-fundraiser-complete-guide/11852420">More than 32 concerts</a> are taking place across the country with musicians giving their time for free to fundraise. Visual artists <a href="https://www.broadsheet.com.au/national/art-and-design/article/art-fights-fire-online-art-auction-help-australias-bushfire-relief-effort">are auctioning their work</a>. </p>
<p>Writers, illustrators and editors are donating <a href="https://authorsforfireys.wixsite.com/website">books, mentoring, and naming rights</a> to characters in forthcoming books to support firefighters. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1214071028210470912"}"></div></p>
<p>As one viral Facebook post <a href="https://www.facebook.com/TheEmmaFiles?__tn__=CH-R&eid=ARB-iOeLphL3WZ8uDGBOKlI4Vwg0gPWuL4Iyw3Kq6cX0I69DaT_I9FjuYpq2_7nx5q-gWCdRrv1Eq0p7&hc_ref=ARS07oo1WciXabHP9RVBjD7KDqcYne8mQfPyUIeB8fOAsYh1Mqr-yWENpUi7P9XMNQE&fref=nf&__xts__%5B0%5D=68.ARAsdvE2xNN9YXp0Ory3FV74v6_X1fYziV3CkMGfkQStDT3jHl0aprE6VqwxdLWNE1rzAh7vLWhRs0LDa3qBFPGZFoLNMiq591FfKf-APKjHwjzSzj2wDIYjTb_7mLuwCYPuZgK4FkhLS8HSsMKREpmdIL8VccTxMalIBkCoVz1Po8RT91Ji9bjmLQR7mU72Io-aW_s_udODXd5ks_QTimUZveN_qAGikRPROgl7-BncWRaSnkO3ZyU_qkyyE_IO9G8kmdfmtxIM-PYhjc0T77DuFhscJ-JTpcYG21NTI6J9OayEHLqXa86SHpXvuZ84biRcfHosa6E3k8Fq6fU">asked</a>: “Tell me again that the Arts have no value?”</p>
<h2>Restoring hope</h2>
<p><a href="https://www.australiansiloarttrail.com/">Silo art</a>, the painting of water towers and other utilitarian sites such as fire stations, have transformed rural areas by the impact of arts practice. This has contributed to the <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-06-30/rochester-cashes-in-on-silo-art-trail-explosion/9918800">economic well-being</a> of these communities, as well as making the local community feel a sense of pride in their town. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="InstagramEmbed" data-react-props="{"url":"https://www.instagram.com/p/BhqsvB9jDgi","accessToken":"127105130696839|b4b75090c9688d81dfd245afe6052f20"}"></div></p>
<p>Art and artists can have a transformational role in rural communities by <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.5172/rsj.351.19.1.60">building resilience</a>. Rural communities value their local history and artists can play an essential role in <a href="http://www.culturaldevelopment.net.au/downloads/RuralCommunities_KimDunphy.pdf">recording and validating</a> a community’s culture.</p>
<p>Arts institutions, such as regional galleries, can also have a dramatic impact on a community. In 2012, the Bendigo Art Gallery generated <a href="https://creative.vic.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0007/56761/Creative_Victoria-Regional_Development_Evaluation-Jan2016-2.pdf">$16.3 million</a> for the local economy. The Book Town festival in Clunes, the Writers Festival in Byron Bay and the Folk Festival in Port Fairy are all crucial to the sense of community in those towns. </p>
<p>Artists can be critical in <a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B8TOgF0LhVwxNU9RQzBLdlpTcGs/view">restoring hope</a> and <a href="https://visual.artshub.com.au/news-article/features/visual-arts/jane-osullivan/revealing-the-unseen-how-art-responds-to-tra">providing healing</a> to a community after it has experienced trauma. </p>
<p>The <a href="https://creativerecovery.net.au">Creative Recovery Network</a> works together with emergency management agencies across Australia to help communities affected by trauma and natural disasters to recover from their experiences. </p>
<p>Urban Initiatives and Arterial created a <a href="https://www.weeklytimesnow.com.au/news/victoria/communities-reflect-on-rebuilding-after-black-saturday-bushfires/news-story/d7577521bdbd270d8db81bf28c8fc216">moving memorial</a> in collaboration with the local community to the 2009 Black Saturday bushfire victims at Strathewen. </p>
<p>The memorial incorporates 10,000 words by community members and serves as a place for community reflection as well as an ongoing learning site for young people. In this way the experiences are never forgotten, and passed on to the next generation.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/309803/original/file-20200113-103974-jualks.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/309803/original/file-20200113-103974-jualks.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/309803/original/file-20200113-103974-jualks.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/309803/original/file-20200113-103974-jualks.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/309803/original/file-20200113-103974-jualks.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/309803/original/file-20200113-103974-jualks.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/309803/original/file-20200113-103974-jualks.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Black Saturday bushfire memorial at Strathewen.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>While the arts can create provocation, they can also be a means of honouring feelings and <a href="https://knowledge.aidr.org.au/resources/ajem-jul-2013-community-leadership-in-disaster-recovery-a-case-study/">processing grief</a>. There are times when communities need more than financial relief to recover from loss. They need a way to make sense of it so they can move forward. </p>
<h2>Committed to their community</h2>
<p>Artists have stepped up in a huge way at this dark time in Australian history by volunteering their talents and resources to support communities and firefighters.</p>
<p>They have demonstrated artists and arts practice can contribute to our society with passion, ingenuity, and imagination. It is time the arts and artists received the respect they deserve by our governments and the broader community. </p>
<p>The arts always matter, but at times of crisis they are especially valuable.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/129695/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jo Caust has received funding from the Australia Council. She is a member of the Arts Industry Council (SA) and NAVA. </span></em></p>
Artists and entertainers have raised millions of dollars for the current bushfire crisis – so why are they still at the receiving end of so much criticism and so little funding and support?
Jo Caust, Associate Professor and Principal Fellow (Hon), The University of Melbourne
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/122557
2019-09-06T01:03:13Z
2019-09-06T01:03:13Z
The heady sense of being at the heart of public art: 50 years of the Kaldor Foundation
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/290871/original/file-20190904-175714-1ewogea.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Kaldor Public Art Project 3: Gilbert & George
The Singing Sculpture, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 16 – 21 August 1973
Copyright: Gilbert & George
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Courtesy Art Gallery of New South Wales</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>In October 1969, Sydney became the focus for dedicated followers of international avant garde art. It is hard to imagine how unusual it was at that time for Australia to be the focus of anything much.</p>
<p>The Opera House was still being built, apparently forever. Our involvement in the Vietnam war, even though it was causing a great deal of angst, was essentially a side show in global politics. We were a long way from the rest of the world and air travel was still prohibitively expensive. </p>
<p>But here were <a href="http://kaldorartprojects.org.au/projects/project-01-christo-and-jeanne-claude">Christo and Jeanne-Claude</a> directing a motley group of students, artists and other volunteers, to make the world’s largest ever work of art – wrapping the entire coast along Little Bay. </p>
<p>The Art Gallery of New South Wales’ latest exhibition, Making Art Public: 50 years of Kaldor Public Art Projects, revisits some of the most iconic large-scale art presented in Australia then and since - through artworks, archival materials and reconstructions. The projects were all funded by contemporary arts patron and collector John Kaldor’s public art organisation. </p>
<h2>One million square feet</h2>
<p>In the 1960s, creative partnerships were commonly discussed as being a purely male creation, so it was not until 1994 that Jeanne-Claude was fully acknowledged as Christo’s equal.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/290856/original/file-20190904-175686-kr4xvy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/290856/original/file-20190904-175686-kr4xvy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/290856/original/file-20190904-175686-kr4xvy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=482&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/290856/original/file-20190904-175686-kr4xvy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=482&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/290856/original/file-20190904-175686-kr4xvy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=482&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/290856/original/file-20190904-175686-kr4xvy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=605&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/290856/original/file-20190904-175686-kr4xvy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=605&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/290856/original/file-20190904-175686-kr4xvy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=605&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Kaldor Public Art Project 1: Christo and Jeanne-Claude Wrapped coast – one million square feet, Little Bay, Sydney, Australia, Little Bay, Sydney, 28 October – 14 December 1969 Copyright: Christo.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Photo: Shunk-Kender © J. Paul Getty Trust. All Rights Reserved.</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The previous year, they had wrapped the <a href="https://christojeanneclaude.net/projects/wrapped-kunsthalle">Kunsthalle</a> at Berne in Switzerland, and had hoped to wrap a length of coast in California. There were logistical problems, all of which were solved by the persuasive Australian art collector and textiles manufacturer, John Kaldor. The Wrapped Coast used a lot of fabric.</p>
<p>Christo and Jeanne-Claude are now seen as major art stars of their generation. After completing Little Bay, they created headlines around the world with each event as they wrapped a <a href="https://christojeanneclaude.net/projects/the-wall---wrapped-roman-wall">Roman Wall at Via Veneto</a>, <a href="https://christojeanneclaude.net/projects/the-pont-neuf-wrapped">Pont Neuf in Paris</a> and hung <a href="https://christojeanneclaude.net/projects/valley-curtain">a curtain across a valley</a> in Colorado. In 1995 they realised their long-held ambition to wrap Berlin’s <a href="https://christojeanneclaude.net/projects/wrapped-reichstag">Reichstag</a>. But Little Bay remains the first magnificent installation on a grand scale. Photographs record the sheer beauty of the way fabric and rope redefined the shape of the land.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/290859/original/file-20190904-175678-wpl8mu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/290859/original/file-20190904-175678-wpl8mu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/290859/original/file-20190904-175678-wpl8mu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=469&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/290859/original/file-20190904-175678-wpl8mu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=469&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/290859/original/file-20190904-175678-wpl8mu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=469&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/290859/original/file-20190904-175678-wpl8mu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=590&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/290859/original/file-20190904-175678-wpl8mu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=590&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/290859/original/file-20190904-175678-wpl8mu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=590&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Kaldor Public Art Project 1: Christo and Jeanne-Claude, Wrapped coast – one million square feet, Little Bay, Sydney, Australia, Sydney, 28 October – 14 December 1969 Copyright: Christo.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Photo: Shunk-Kender © J. Paul Getty Trust. All Rights Reserved.</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Daniel Thomas, then curator at the Art Gallery of NSW, was a passionate advocate for Christo and supported Kaldor’s offer of a wrapped gum tree as gift to the collection. It was rejected by the Trustees. In 2011, the <a href="https://www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au/collection/works/250.2011.a-b/?">tree </a>entered the collection as a part of the Kaldor family’s gift of their collection to the Gallery. Now, 50 years after Little Bay, <a href="http://kaldorartprojects.org.au/">Kaldor Public Art Projects</a> have joined with the gallery to create a survey celebrating the half century of promoting art in public.</p>
<h2>Crowd pleasers</h2>
<p>Christo was only the beginning. In 1971, Kaldor brought Harald Szeemann, curator for Germany’s Kassel Documenta, to Australia. Szeemann looked at studios of artists, well-known, little known and unknown. The resulting exhibition <a href="http://kaldorartprojects.org.au/projects/project-02-harald-szeemann">I want to leave a nice well-done child here</a>, did not result in Szeemann choosing any Australians for international stardom, but it did encourage a new generation of Australian artists to think of themselves as being part of a global community.</p>
<p>Some projects showed that modern art and pleasure can go well together. In 1973, Gilbert and George performed <a href="http://kaldorartprojects.org.au/projects/project-03-gilbert-and-george">The Singing Sculpture</a>, while the food artist, Miralda, created <a href="http://kaldorartprojects.org.au/projects/project-04-miralda">Coloured bread</a>. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/290861/original/file-20190904-175686-1rqcer2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/290861/original/file-20190904-175686-1rqcer2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/290861/original/file-20190904-175686-1rqcer2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=890&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/290861/original/file-20190904-175686-1rqcer2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=890&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/290861/original/file-20190904-175686-1rqcer2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=890&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/290861/original/file-20190904-175686-1rqcer2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1119&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/290861/original/file-20190904-175686-1rqcer2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1119&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/290861/original/file-20190904-175686-1rqcer2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1119&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Kaldor Public Art Project 5: Charlotte Moorman and Nam June Paik.
Charlotte Moorman performs Sky Kiss, composition by Jim McWillliams, above the Sydney Opera House Forecourt as part of the project Moorman + Paik, 11 April 1976.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Photo: Kerry Dundas</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Most sensational of all was <a href="http://kaldorartprojects.org.au/projects/project-05-charlotte-moorman-and-nam-june-paik">Charlotte Moorman and Nam June Paik</a>’s 1976 exhibition and performances with <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-9lnbIGHzUM">TV Cello</a>, that included Moorman naked and playing an ice cello and smothered in 13 kilograms of chocolate fudge. </p>
<p>Another popular event was Jeff Koons’<a href="http://kaldorartprojects.org.au/projects/project-10-jeff-koons">Puppy</a>, created in flowers outside the Museum of Contemporary Art.</p>
<h2>Hiding and seeking</h2>
<p>Not all of the projects were so easily accessible to large crowds. The land artist, Richard Long, made <a href="http://kaldorartprojects.org.au/projects/project-07-richard-long">A straight hundred mile walk in Australia</a> near Broken Hill. </p>
<p>By way of contrast Thomas Demand’s <a href="http://kaldorartprojects.org.au/projects/project-25-thomas-demand">The dailies</a> was an intimate installation in the old Commercial Travellers’ Association headquarters, which are concealed inside Sydney’s MLC building. </p>
<p>The Kaldor artists have often experimented with different venues. Martin Boyce’s <a href="http://kaldorartprojects.org.au/projects/project-18-martin-boyce">We are shipwrecked and landlocked</a> was installed in the Old Melbourne Gaol, while <a href="http://kaldorartprojects.org.au/projects/project-17-bill-viola">Bill Viola</a>’s Fire Woman and Tristan’s Ascension (The Sound of a Mountain Under a Waterfall) were installations at St Saviour’s Church in Redfern.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/290862/original/file-20190904-175710-4sf6mn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/290862/original/file-20190904-175710-4sf6mn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/290862/original/file-20190904-175710-4sf6mn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=385&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/290862/original/file-20190904-175710-4sf6mn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=385&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/290862/original/file-20190904-175710-4sf6mn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=385&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/290862/original/file-20190904-175710-4sf6mn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=483&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/290862/original/file-20190904-175710-4sf6mn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=483&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/290862/original/file-20190904-175710-4sf6mn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=483&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Kaldor Public Art Project 17: Bill Viola.
Installation view of Fire Woman, 2005, screened with Tristan’s Ascension (The Sound of a Mountain Under a Waterfall), 2005, St Saviour’s Church, Redfern, Sydney, 9 April – 30 May 2008 Copyright: Bill Viola</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Photo: Adam Free</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The Kaldor Public Art Projects have always relied on willing volunteer workers, many of them art students. The importance of these volunteers to the Kaldor program is explored in Alicia Frankovich’s The Work, exhibited at the Art Gallery of NSW. As a part of Project 30, <a href="http://kaldorartprojects.org.au/projects/marina-abramovic">Marina Abramović: In Residence</a> the artist <a href="http://kaldorartprojects.org.au/projects/residency">mentored</a> 12 young Australian performance artists. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/290864/original/file-20190904-175686-1xn34qy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/290864/original/file-20190904-175686-1xn34qy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/290864/original/file-20190904-175686-1xn34qy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/290864/original/file-20190904-175686-1xn34qy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/290864/original/file-20190904-175686-1xn34qy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/290864/original/file-20190904-175686-1xn34qy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/290864/original/file-20190904-175686-1xn34qy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/290864/original/file-20190904-175686-1xn34qy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Kaldor Public Art Project 30: Marina Abramović.
Marina Abramović: In Residence, Pier 2/3 Walsh Bay, Sydney, 24 June – 5 July 2015
© Marina Abramović</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Photo: Pedro Greig</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The objective always was more than just showing art to a bemused public. As a part of the current exhibition, the artist Imants Tillers, who became an artist after working on the Wrapped Coast, has created A New World Rises, an homage to the impact of the Kaldor Art Projects on his professional career. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/291194/original/file-20190905-175691-1nvtb41.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/291194/original/file-20190905-175691-1nvtb41.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/291194/original/file-20190905-175691-1nvtb41.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=383&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/291194/original/file-20190905-175691-1nvtb41.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=383&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/291194/original/file-20190905-175691-1nvtb41.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=383&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/291194/original/file-20190905-175691-1nvtb41.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=482&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/291194/original/file-20190905-175691-1nvtb41.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=482&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/291194/original/file-20190905-175691-1nvtb41.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=482&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">An installation view of Imants Tillers, A new world rises, 2019 at the Art Gallery of New South Wales. Copyright: Imants Tillers.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Photo: Felicity Jenkins</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In another part of the gallery Ian Milliss, another volunteer from 1969, has created Natural Parallels 2, consisting of ropes running between four flights of stairs. Milliss had been a modernist painter before Little Bay showed him how art could be a form of political engagement.</p>
<h2>A smaller world</h2>
<p>Modern communications have made the world a more intimate space than it was in 1969. Australian artists are now self confident in approaching their history and their identity. </p>
<p>In 2016 Jonathan Jones confronted some of the ghosts of our past with <a href="https://theconversation.com/review-barrangal-dyara-skin-and-bones-was-made-flesh-65947">barrangal dyara (skin and bones)</a>, the first Kaldor commission of an Australian artist. </p>
<p>Despite its size, (it effectively took over the top part of Sydney’s Royal Botanic Garden), barrangal dyara trod lightly on the earth. All that is left of it are the photographic records and the gypsum shields, now moved far away.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/290865/original/file-20190904-175700-1cwikqq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/290865/original/file-20190904-175700-1cwikqq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/290865/original/file-20190904-175700-1cwikqq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/290865/original/file-20190904-175700-1cwikqq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/290865/original/file-20190904-175700-1cwikqq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/290865/original/file-20190904-175700-1cwikqq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/290865/original/file-20190904-175700-1cwikqq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/290865/original/file-20190904-175700-1cwikqq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Kaldor Public Art Project 32: Jonathan Jones Aerial view of barrangal dyara (skin and bones), Royal Botanic Garden, Sydney, 17 September – 3 October 2016 Copyright: Jonathan Jones.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Photo: Pedro Greig</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Agatha Gothe-Snape, who was born 11 years after the wrapping of Little Bay, has created Lion’s Honey, an ongoing performance tribute to the art that has helped stimulate her own practice. </p>
<p>The Art Gallery of NSW has recreated as much as it can of events past – using objects that have been left behind, videos and photographs. </p>
<p>It is an exhibition to trigger memories of experiencing, for the first time, the heady sense of being at the heart of amazing art. </p>
<p><em>Making Art Public is at the Art Gallery of NSW from Sept 7-February 16.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/122557/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Joanna Mendelssohn has in the past received funding from the Australian Research Council.</span></em></p>
Fifty years after Christo and Jeanne-Claude wrapped the NSW coast at Little Bay, the Art Gallery of NSW celebrates the long term consequences of John Kaldor’s creative philanthropy.
Joanna Mendelssohn, Honorary Principal Fellow, University of Melbourne. Editor in Chief, Design and Art of Australia Online, The University of Melbourne
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/116031
2019-05-24T10:52:00Z
2019-05-24T10:52:00Z
Banksy: graffiti has become more valuable for what it is than what it says
<p>On the side of a garage in Port Talbot, south Wales, a <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2018/dec/19/banksy-port-talbot-mural-south-wales">new Banksy artwork appeared</a>. The piece, titled “Season’s Greetings”, very quickly brought thousands of visitors to the town. And by January 2019 there was so much interest in it that art dealer John Brandler paid a “<a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-46910294">six-figure sum</a>” for the graffiti. </p>
<p>The decision to sell the Banksy sparked some controversy, with the most prominent concern being that Brandler <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2019/apr/30/banksy-artwork-port-talbot-seasons-greeetings-welsh-steel-town">would take the work away</a> from Port Talbot, removing a valuable tourist draw. But Brandler has <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-48184287">moved the work</a> to a new Street Art Museum (SAM) in the town, alongside works by other famous street artists such as Blek le Rat and Pure Evil. He has guaranteed its exhibition there for the next three years and even promised locals free entry. </p>
<p>Residents were happy, but a few still wondered if graffiti or street art belongs in a museum at all. Some say that privatising street art is counter to the nature of the form, that graffiti in a museum is like a tiger in a cage. </p>
<p>Sure, street art can still be powerful and beautiful in a gallery, but an essential piece of it is lost by disconnecting it from its natural setting and locking it in a confined and controlled space. But Brandler owned the work, and wanted it as a centrepiece for SAM, which will attract visitors, so in it went. </p>
<p>Season’s Greetings depicts a small boy with a sledge dressed in winter attire looking up sticking his tongue out to catch what appear to be falling snowflakes. The other half of the image – painted around a corner – depicts a dumpster fire emitting smoke and ash. The corner is the key, asserting on the viewer how unaware the boy is of his predicament. </p>
<p>It has been photographed and posted hundreds of times since it was painted, but most tellingly <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/BrkqwhnlNjR/">on Banksy’s Instagram feed</a>. There it’s pictured with the <a href="https://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/truth-behind-port-talbot-banksy-15608628">local steelworks looming behind</a>, making an allusion that the piece is a commentary on Port Talbot’s air pollution. The town’s levels of one type of particulate matter (PM10) are among the <a href="https://airqualitynews.com/2018/05/08/who-amends-figures-after-port-talbot-pm2-5-data-error/">highest in the country</a>, and this has been <a href="http://www.procurement.wales.nhs.uk/40330.file.dld">largely attributed</a> to emissions from the steelworks. Although it must be noted that in recent months owner Tata Steel has pledged to <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-47145258">introduce new measures</a> to reduce emissions from the site.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="InstagramEmbed" data-react-props="{"url":"https://www.instagram.com/p/BrkqwhnlNjR","accessToken":"127105130696839|b4b75090c9688d81dfd245afe6052f20"}"></div></p>
<h2>Spectacle value</h2>
<p>The debate over whether artworks like this should be moved and placed in museums is overshadowed by the prestige and prosperity that possessing a Banksy can bring to a city, and the associated tourism money that comes with it. But sociologically speaking Banksy’s work is valuable for two reasons. First, because people pay attention to it. French philosopher Guy Debord wrote about <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2012/mar/30/guy-debord-society-spectacle">the “society of the spectacle”</a> in 1967 but his ideas are very relevant to Banksy today. Debord would say Banksy’s value is achieved through the attention his work receives, and how that collective attention reflects off his art and back onto the audience as evidence that the work is inherently valuable. Simply put, people paying sufficient attention to a Banksy (or indeed any artwork) makes it a spectacle, which grants it legitimate commercial value. </p>
<p>But Banksy’s work also has value because of something essential – what sociologist Howard Becker would call its “maverick” qualities. Mavericks, Becker says, are those who push the boundaries of their forms and expand conventions. Banksy is a maverick in both the graffiti and conventional art worlds, expanding what graffiti can be and say, and pushing the boundaries of what conventional art can look like. As such his work has intrinsic, innovative value as well as commercial value. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/276097/original/file-20190523-187147-p3fj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/276097/original/file-20190523-187147-p3fj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/276097/original/file-20190523-187147-p3fj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/276097/original/file-20190523-187147-p3fj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/276097/original/file-20190523-187147-p3fj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/276097/original/file-20190523-187147-p3fj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/276097/original/file-20190523-187147-p3fj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The value of Banksy’s work comes in part from people paying attention to it.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/port-talbot-west-wales-december-20th-1263167128?src=2PqdHzfMdYyuCgmFI4wigw-1-0">i shootstock/Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>While this is valid motivation for privately exhibiting the work, using the Banksy as a tourist draw does little more than commodify it and reduce its value to who produced it. Commodifying it says “this is a Banksy, it is important and valuable because it is a Banksy, and as such it is worth you paying to see it in person”. But this framing of the work imposes itself in a way that obscures the graffiti’s unambiguous and conspicuous message. The commercial value of the Banksy, its privileged place in a museum, and the security protecting it all tell the observer that it is precious for what it is and who produced it, not what it says. Its legitimacy and authority are byproducts of its exchange value and not its social commentary. </p>
<p>The Port Talbot Banksy’s commentary, though open to interpretation, is that the harms of pollution are suffered the most by those who are the least responsible for the conditions, the most vulnerable to them, and the least aware of them – children. If the town’s pollution is not dealt with the town’s children will be the ones who suffer its effects. But promoting this message is not in the town’s financial interests. It is shrewder to promote the fact that there is an exclusive and expensive work by counterculture icon and provocateur Banksy on display; come and pay to see it. But how many visitors will think much about what Banksy may be saying, or about why it showed up specifically in Port Talbot?</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/116031/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Tyson Mitman does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
As the Port Talbot Banksy is moved to a new street art museum, the very reason it was created is being ignored.
Tyson Mitman, Lecturer in Sociology and Criminology, York St John University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/114522
2019-04-08T14:07:38Z
2019-04-08T14:07:38Z
Graffiti is an eye-catching way to create lively spaces in cities
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/268051/original/file-20190408-2909-9k43qd.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=24%2C404%2C4007%2C2613&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Graffiti in Maboneng, Johannesburg provides a bright contrast to the spaces around it.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Alexandra Parker</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Whether it’s tagging (the stylised writing of an individual or crew’s name), posters, stickers, installations, murals or mosaics, graffiti has always been a contentious issue. Countries like the <a href="https://www.co.washington.or.us/Sheriff/OtherServices/GangsGraffiti/graffiti-eradication.cfm">US</a>, UK and Australia have adopted aggressive – and <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/j.1467-9906.2012.00610.x">expensive</a> – strategies to try and eradicate graffiti.</p>
<p>But not all cities view graffiti as a bad thing. Over the past few decades, it’s increasingly become <a href="https://medium.com/@Emilyfellows/graffiti-as-a-canvas-for-popular-culture-ce15350c4140">part of mainstream culture</a>. Some places have actively promoted graffiti and encouraged artists to work in public spaces. Others, like Bogota in Colombia, have introduced legislation that aims <a href="https://thebogotapost.com/graffiti-in-bogota-urban-art-versus-conservation/23666/">to promote</a> the responsible and legal practice of graffiti. In Singapore, the state has <a href="https://www.academia.edu/37227127/Spacing_Beyond_the_Lines_Graffitis_Place_in_the_Singapore_City_State">designated specific surfaces</a> for graffiti.</p>
<p>Johannesburg, South Africa’s most populous metro, takes a dim view of graffiti. In 2016, Mayor Herman Mashaba <a href="https://mg.co.za/article/2016-11-01-00-graffiti-and-the-legal-bid-to-erase-public-art-histories">declared</a> that he would eradicate graffiti through stricter bylaws to create an “investor-friendly environment” in the city. His stance is arguably at odds with the City of Johannesburg’s policies on <a href="http://wiredspace.wits.ac.za/handle/10539/17150">urban redevelopment</a>. These rely on programmes that support public art and promote tourism opportunities.</p>
<p>We and our colleagues at the <a href="http://www.gcro.ac.za/about/about-the-gcro">Gauteng City-Region Observatory</a> wanted to know the contribution made by graffiti to tourism and the public environment in the inner-city of Johannesburg. The Observatory is an independent research organisation which generates data and analysis to help inform development and decision making in the Gauteng City-region. So we undertook a <a href="http://gcro.ac.za/outputs/occasional-papers/">study of graffiti in Maboneng</a>, a precinct in Johannesburg’s inner city that’s undergoing urban renewal.</p>
<p>Using the case study of <a href="http://www.mabonengprecinct.com/">Maboneng</a>, the research demonstrates that graffiti has been leveraged in nurturing urban development, creative economies and tourism in the inner-city. This means it has aesthetic value in the urban environment. The research shows that graffiti contributes to place-making by creating meaningful or identifiable spaces that tolerate public participation through the medium of graffiti.</p>
<h2>Graffiti in Maboneng</h2>
<p>The Maboneng precinct began in 2009 with the completion of the “Arts on Main” building, an artists’ space in a renovated industrial building. Over the last decade, Maboneng has become an iconic example of how investing in “creative spaces”, “creative industries” and “creative tourism” can be used to drive urban renewal of previously disused or derelict urban environments. </p>
<p>Maboneng’s developers have created a strong public and street art presence, both physically and digitally. In fact, graffiti forms part of the developers’ strategy for reinvigorating the area. The area now boasts several large-scale murals produced through street art festivals and artistic commissions. It’s also attracted significant attention from graffiti artists. All of this contributes to Maboneng’s aesthetic identity and is one of the elements that draws tourists to the area.</p>
<p>In our research we used photographs of graffiti to document, locate and map its presence within the precinct. Graffiti here refers to a spectrum, from tagging to elaborate pieces with a focus on stylised words and text. </p>
<p>Through visual and spatial analysis, we were able to demonstrate that graffiti has aesthetic value. It signifies the redevelopment of the neighbourhood, distinguishes the area from surrounding spaces, and projects a global aesthetic similar to that seen in places like Hell’s Kitchen, New York; the east end of London or Bogota, Colombia.</p>
<p>Notably, the mapping showed how tagging, accompanies both redevelopment and commissioned street art. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/267348/original/file-20190403-177163-emxnrp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/267348/original/file-20190403-177163-emxnrp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=416&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/267348/original/file-20190403-177163-emxnrp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=416&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/267348/original/file-20190403-177163-emxnrp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=416&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/267348/original/file-20190403-177163-emxnrp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=522&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/267348/original/file-20190403-177163-emxnrp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=522&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/267348/original/file-20190403-177163-emxnrp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=522&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Tags and public art.</span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Large murals were incorporated into the architecture of renovated buildings. These murals were frequently accompanied by other forms of graffiti such as tagging, posters or stickers. Graffiti was present in the precinct even where buildings or public space had been upgraded. This reflects Maboneng’s tolerance for types of graffiti that are more frequently viewed as undesirable. </p>
<p>We also examined the visibility of graffiti murals in Maboneng. The location of a graffiti piece is a conscious decision: graffiti artists aim to express their views in the public realm and gain more recognition and respect based on the reach of their work. </p>
<p>We mapped the reach of the murals on high rise buildings in Maboneng, and found that many could be seen for several hundred metres down streets – and, in some cases, beyond the boundaries of Maboneng itself. The murals announce the branding and identity of the area for the public and thus aid in making the Maboneng precinct more visible and inviting.</p>
<h2>Navigating the city</h2>
<p>Our research shows that graffiti has been used to create a strong brand for Maboneng and is a form of advertising that extends beyond the immediate neighbourhood boundaries. </p>
<p>Graffiti has been used as a form of way-finding or navigation, where buildings become unique landmarks in the landscape. It is through these elements that the value of graffiti is being realised in Maboneng. </p>
<p>Graffiti is creating a distinctive precinct within Johannesburg and, simultaneously, a familiar global aesthetic of the creative neighbourhood. The presence of graffiti in Maboneng has not detracted from its value in terms of urban renewal. This means that Maboneng provides an alternative management approach, which should be further investigated. </p>
<p><em><a href="https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Samkelisiwe_Khanyile">Samkelisiwe Khanyile</a>, a junior researcher with the GCRO, contributed to this article.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/114522/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The Gauteng City-Region Observatory is funded primarily through a grant from the Gauteng Provincial Government.</span></em></p>
Graffiti contributes to place-making by creating meaningful or identifiable spaces.
Alexandra Parker, Researcher of urban & cultural studies, Gauteng City-Region Observatory
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/110147
2019-01-31T00:08:47Z
2019-01-31T00:08:47Z
Hope and anguish in a Mexican refugee shelter: Researcher records stories of Central American asylum seekers
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/256136/original/file-20190129-108342-1iimxbg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Central American asylum seekers paint murals on Casa Tochan, a refugee shelter in Mexico City.
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Doris Bara</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>This month, <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-immigration-caravan/nearly-1000-central-american-migrants-in-new-%20caravans-enter-mexico-idUSKCN1PC07K">a caravan of nearly 1,000 Central American asylum seekers crossed Mexico’s southern border with Guatemala</a>. They followed in the footsteps of more than <a href="https://www.eltelegrafo.com.ec/noticias/mundo/8/caravana-migrantes-avanza-eeuu">7,000 asylum seekers who passed through earlier in October</a>. </p>
<p>The Northern Triangle Region of El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras continues to experience endemic poverty, extremely high homicide rates and widespread gang activity. <a href="https://journals-scholarsportal-info.libproxy.wlu.ca/pdf/01419870/v41i0007/1274_plrcamim.xml">These dire circumstances drive migration flows to the north.</a></p>
<p>The United States, until recently, was the northern destination of choice for Central American asylum-seekers. It was a “promised land” where they would find personal security and economic prosperity.</p>
<p>In contrast with those in earlier caravans, these newcomers to Mexico are unlikely to embark on the futile <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-45951782">4,000-kilometre journey north to the United States</a>. Mobility to the U.S. is becoming increasingly more dangerous and <a href="https://www.npr.org/2018/11/27/670807343/fact-check-whats-happening-on-the-u-s-mexico-border">the U.S.-Mexico border is more difficult to cross</a> at both official and unofficial ports of entry.</p>
<p>President Andrés Manuel López Obrador directed officials at the Mexico-Guatemala border to distribute humanitarian visas to the newest caravan. The visas will allow the Central Americans to live and work in Mexican territory for one year while they navigate the country’s refugee determination process.</p>
<p>Central American asylum-seekers are now stranded in Mexico. The journey north has left them in a state of limbo, keeping them tacked down in a location where they did not intend to stay permanently.</p>
<h2>Mexico attempts to fulfil obligation to refugees</h2>
<p><a href="https://aristeguinoticias.com/1912/mexico/estima-comar-28-mil-solicitudes-de-refugio-al-terminar-2018/">Mexico received 28,000 asylum claims in 2018 and 7,000 are backlogged from 2017</a>. Its <a href="https://www.gob.mx/cms/uploads/attachment/file/211049/08_Ley_sobre_Refugiados__Protecci_n_Complementaria_y_Asilo_Pol_tico.pdf">Law on Refugees</a> is framed by the <a href="https://www.oas.org/dil/1984_cartagena_declaration_on_refugees.pdf">1984 Cartagena Declaration on Refugees.</a></p>
<p>The Cartagena Declaration grants protection for people whose lives are threatened by generalized violence who would not be considered refugees under the 1951 UN Refugee Convention. </p>
<p>In this respect, <a href="https://cis.org/Luna/Mexicos-Refugee-Law">Mexico is attempting to fulfil its international obligation to refugees</a>. However, its refugee-protection system is massively under-resourced and unprepared to handle so many asylum cases.</p>
<h2>The art of the wait for asylum</h2>
<p>Asylum-seekers who hold humanitarian visas often reside in temporary migrant shelters called <em>albergues</em>. Mexico City is home to several <em>albergues</em> that divide guests by age and gender.</p>
<p>Over the past two years, I have conducted research at one of these shelters, Albergue Tochán in southwestern Mexico City. Tochán (<em>nuestra casa</em>, our home in Náhuatl) houses men who have experienced violence in their country of origin or along their journey through Mexican territory. </p>
<p>Tochán responds to the basic needs of the men, including the provision of beds, clothing, meals and toiletries. The tall windowless structure with irregular architecture and steep stairways resembles a clean, warm, welcoming, albeit very cramped home. However, it runs over capacity with far fewer beds than guests. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/256402/original/file-20190130-112314-1ewixtu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/256402/original/file-20190130-112314-1ewixtu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/256402/original/file-20190130-112314-1ewixtu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/256402/original/file-20190130-112314-1ewixtu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/256402/original/file-20190130-112314-1ewixtu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=499&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/256402/original/file-20190130-112314-1ewixtu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=499&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/256402/original/file-20190130-112314-1ewixtu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=499&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Casa Tochán rooms.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Doris Bara</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>While at the <em>albergue</em>, the men are free to come and go. They use computers equipped with internet, watch television at specified hours and they adhere to a strict schedule of household chores.</p>
<p>I interviewed 15 of these men over many hours while accompanying them in daily activities, and visiting with my undergraduate students. </p>
<p>As a researcher, I can’t help the thousands of Central Americans who are stranded in Mexico. But, I can help tell their stories. I believe stories can bring some humanity to a population that has been vilified and rendered nameless by recent political discourse. </p>
<h2>They want to be remembered</h2>
<p>Refugee determination procedures create many uncertainties and anxieties. Asylum-seekers often find themselves in situations of indefinite and unpredictable waiting. </p>
<p>Research has shown that the <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/0966369X.2011.566370">long wait for asylum in a host country can cause more stress and mental anguish than the events that happened before the refugee claimants went into exile.</a> </p>
<p>The men at Tochán spoke about their current reality and described their daily activities, frustrations and coping mechanisms. They narrated their hopes and aspirations for the future, and they detailed the abuses they endured in the past. </p>
<p>The men were keen to talk — they want their stories to be documented. Many asked that they be identified in publications so that they could leave a piece of themselves behind in case they did not survive deportation back to Central America.</p>
<p>The men spoke about their sense of exclusion in a new territory. They worried that their asylum claims would be rejected, resulting in official and permanent eviction from Mexico.</p>
<p>As days become weeks, and weeks turn into months, their notions of time and space need to be continually recalibrated as the wait drags on.</p>
<p>Waiting defines their identity. Some of the men reported no longer knowing who they are anymore or what they are waiting for. They described feeling “useless,” “not even human,” “impotent,” “powerless,” like a “beggar” and living “half lives.” </p>
<p>Anxiety, uncertainty and lack of control over one’s life and future are clearly factors inherent to the collective experience of the men at Tochán. </p>
<h2>Finding unity in art</h2>
<p>The men have been busy.</p>
<p>Multiple activities guide the men’s days. They attend Sunday morning mass and afternoon soccer matches, and they craft and sell wooden artesanías, masks and paintings. </p>
<p>They paint enormous colourful murals that cover virtually every surface of the <em>albergue</em> and throughout the surrounding neighbourhood. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/256401/original/file-20190130-75085-9isy4f.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/256401/original/file-20190130-75085-9isy4f.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/256401/original/file-20190130-75085-9isy4f.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/256401/original/file-20190130-75085-9isy4f.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/256401/original/file-20190130-75085-9isy4f.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=499&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/256401/original/file-20190130-75085-9isy4f.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=499&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/256401/original/file-20190130-75085-9isy4f.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=499&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Art therapy has proven to be a helpful tool for these refugees.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Doris Bara</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>With the assistance of local artists, the director of Albergue Tochán has introduced art as therapy and as a source of income. While hesitant at first, the men have gradually found ways to express and distract themselves through art while they navigate daily, weekly and monthly waiting for the legal validation of their refugee status.</p>
<p>Through art, asylum-seekers have been provided the opportunity to share and learn from each other. </p>
<p>While painting together, they find a level of comfort and unity as they learn to trust and rely on each other. </p>
<p>As their initial dream of reaching the United States deteriorates during the long wait at the <em>albergue</em>, the men learn to embrace a Mexican hope: the possibility of staying in a new location while waiting for an uncertain future.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/110147/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Stacey Wilson-Forsberg receives funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC). </span></em></p>
A human rights researcher documents the stories of Central American migrants leaving behind endemic poverty and high homicide rates. In limbo in Mexico, many use art therapy to express their anxiety.
Stacey Wilson-Forsberg, Associate Professor Human Rights & Human Diversity, Wilfrid Laurier University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/109831
2019-01-17T10:59:43Z
2019-01-17T10:59:43Z
Banksy: who should foot the bill to protect his work in public spaces?
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/253674/original/file-20190114-43517-nxelsb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The Port Talbot Banksy.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.paimages.co.uk/search-results/fluid/?q=banksy%20port%20talbot&amber_border=1&category=A,S,E&fields_0=all&fields_1=all&green_border=1&imagesonly=1&orientation=both&red_border=1&words_0=all&words_1=all">Ben Birchall/PA Wire/PA Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>When a mural by artist Banksy <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-46617742">appeared on a garage wall</a> in Port Talbot, the building’s owner, Ian Lewis, had no idea just <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-46771722">how many people</a> would want to get a good look at it. The mural has attracted <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-46759349">thousands of visitors</a> and Lewis has been keen to <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-46617742">protect it</a>, by employing guards, and building a see-through covering over the work.</p>
<p>But should there even be security on a piece of graffiti? After all, <a href="https://hyperallergic.com/38778/occupying-the-walls-graffiti-as-political-protest/">the essence of graffiti</a> is that it is temporary and subject to the possibility of being covered over with the next slogan or image. It has long been one of the means by which people can <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/cities/gallery/2017/may/17/writing-wall-political-graffiti-banksy-brexit-trump-in-pictures">make their views known</a> in a very public way without official sanction. It is a form of protest that visually takes up public space and asks for no endorsement and often no individual credit. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="InstagramEmbed" data-react-props="{"url":"https://www.instagram.com/p/BrkqwhnlNjR/?hl=en","accessToken":"127105130696839|b4b75090c9688d81dfd245afe6052f20"}"></div></p>
<p>The list of graffiti artists who have gained recognition in the contemporary art world is not a long one. Shepherd Fairey, who <a href="https://www.artic.edu/artworks/229396/barack-obama-hope-poster">designed the Obama “Hope” poster</a>, and <a href="https://www.theartstory.org/artist-basquiat-jean-michel.htm">Jean Michel Basquiat</a> are two of the most well known. Banksy himself has been quoted as saying that he never craved commercial success and that it’s actually <a href="https://www.villagevoice.com/2013/10/09/village-voice-exclusive-an-interview-with-banksy-street-art-cult-hero-international-man-of-mystery/">a mark of failure for a graffiti artist</a>. </p>
<p>A lofty sentiment, but whether he wants it or not, the popularity of Banksy’s work is phenomenal. The pared down stencil style coupled with often highly astute political commentary and visual puns is easy to read. It is enough to satisfy even those for whom art should consist of a “proper picture of something”.</p>
<p>It also lends itself very well to reproduction and copying. I actually have a mug emblazoned with Banksy style rats sitting on my desk as I write. This is what happens when an iconoclast becomes an icon. What started out as a practice that deliberately subverted the concept of art as an exclusive, costly investment, has now become just as commodified as the latest piece by <a href="https://www.theartstory.org/artist-hirst-damien.htm">Damien Hirst</a>.</p>
<h2>Banksy’s bankability</h2>
<p>I’m personally on the fence about some of Banksy’s more recent work. I’m completely on board with the political nature of the imagery and most definitely share a lot of his ideological sentiments, but there is a degree to which he is becoming a parody of himself. For example, while it’s easy to appreciate the point he was making with the recently auctioned self-destructing drawing “<a href="https://theconversation.com/banksy-i-was-in-the-room-when-his-painting-shredded-and-enhanced-his-brand-104660">Love is in the Bin</a>”, no one could convince me that he was unaware of the effect that the action would have on his bankability.</p>
<p>Given he knows the impact his work can have, was it selfish of Banksy to impose this latest piece on the unsuspecting garage owner? Or was it an act of extreme philanthropy, bestowing on Port Talbot a gift that can be used either to benefit the individual or the community? He must have known that Lewis would be plagued with attention, and the inevitability of this imposed cultural responsibility must surely have at least crossed Banksy’s mind. </p>
<p>Public art comes in many diverse forms, from the monumental statues commemorating historical figures, to the temporary and often illegal murals created by contemporary graffiti artists. My own practice is informed by an ethos of inclusion that places the nearby community at the centre of decisions about how it is created, themed and managed.</p>
<p>Because of that philosophical background, I do find Banksy’s imposition of his work without regard for its effect on the local community to be irritatingly entitled. However, the <a href="https://www.theartstory.org/artist-banksy-artworks.htm">issues he highlights</a> such as the <a href="https://theartstack.com/artist/banksy/i-remember-when-all-this-was-trees">capitalist obsession with growth</a> over sustainability, and <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/banksy-port-talbot-graffiti-wales-michael-sheen-steel-pollution-environment-a8692821.html">industrial air pollution</a> are relevant and important to a much wider community, so I appreciate that by using his fame to draw attention to them he is carrying out a form of community service.</p>
<p>The Welsh government <a href="https://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/banksy-collector-willing-pay-six-15656998">has since confirmed</a> it will be taking over security for the Port Talbot artwork, and is discussing the future of the piece. Whether by design or because he just isn’t interested in how the work is used, it’s part of Banksy’s artistic practice to leave the work to the mercy of others when it’s complete. However, it could be argued that he could have used <a href="https://www.artspace.com/magazine/art_101/close_look/how-does-banksy-make-money-or-a-lesson-in-art-market-economics-55352">some of his own money</a> to help protect the work, and mitigate against any grief <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-46810787">he’s caused the garage owner</a>.</p>
<p>I’d personally like to see the work sold, and the proceeds used to address some of the social and political issues that Banksy highlights with his work. It worked for Dennis Stinchcombe who, when a mural entitled Mobile Lovers appeared on the doorway of his Bristol youth club in 2014, sold the work and used the funds <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-46810787">to save the struggling organisation</a>. </p>
<p>Whatever happens now, one thing is certain: Banksy certainly knows how to get his work in the news.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/109831/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Janice Aitken is the Honorary Secretary of UCU Scotland, Chair of the Board of Directors of Dundee Women's Aid and a Board Member of Tin Roof Artist's Collective</span></em></p>
Unsolicited artwork by the world famous artist can cause big problems for private building owners.
Janice Aitken, Reader in Art and Design, University of Dundee
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/106064
2018-12-20T18:52:01Z
2018-12-20T18:52:01Z
Take the tram into a more playable city
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/244895/original/file-20181111-39548-8uogn4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">This playable tram generates different musical compositions at different speeds when viewed through a smartphone camera using an augmented reality app.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">James H.H. Morgan</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span></figcaption></figure><p><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2014/sep/04/playable-cities-the-city-that-plays-together-stays-together">Playable cities</a> connect people and place in creative ways. They appropriate urban environments and infrastructure and provide ways for citizens to participate in smart cities. While people may be aware of smart cities, these are perceived to be <a href="https://theconversation.com/from-smart-cities-1-0-to-2-0-its-not-only-about-the-tech-73851">more about technology and corporate interests</a>, rather than about people.</p>
<p>Play invites participation. And the playable city invites you to become part of the experience, part of the artwork. It shifts the boundary of where an artwork begins and ends in relation to our urban environment.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/bringing-back-an-old-idea-for-smart-cities-playing-on-the-street-85756">Bringing back an old idea for smart cities – playing on the street</a>
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<p>The 2018 <a href="https://www.festival.melbourne/2018/events/melbourne-art-trams/">Melbourne Art Trams</a> program connects people with art, with trams first being painted in creative ways in 1978. But, for the first time, one tram makes art “playable”. </p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/250598/original/file-20181214-178576-40dgd4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/250598/original/file-20181214-178576-40dgd4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/250598/original/file-20181214-178576-40dgd4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=598&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/250598/original/file-20181214-178576-40dgd4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=598&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/250598/original/file-20181214-178576-40dgd4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=598&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/250598/original/file-20181214-178576-40dgd4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=751&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/250598/original/file-20181214-178576-40dgd4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=751&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/250598/original/file-20181214-178576-40dgd4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=751&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Using a smartphone camera and an augmented reality app, the music changes with the tram’s speed.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">James H.H. Morgan</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
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<p>My 32.5-metre tram artwork plays a musical score via <a href="https://theconversation.com/designers-of-mixed-reality-experiences-shouldnt-overlook-the-communal-nature-of-video-games-90315">augmented reality</a>. It takes something that is functional and everyday and turns it into a playable public artwork.</p>
<p>Public art is often decorative, but should also be provocative – challenging our perception and understanding of public space. Central to the playable city concept is the role of art and play in transformation and defamiliarisation – so that we our world in a new light. </p>
<p>The playable city happens in conversation with people and places that make the city – it is a social framework. Conversation is what playable cities bring to smart cities, broadening our perspective and imagining of what our city could be.</p>
<h2>A 32.5-metre-long musical score</h2>
<p>Trams have been part of Melbourne life since 1889, with the <a href="https://www.afr.com/news/the-story-of-melbournes-art-trams-20180924-h15s8v">first art trams</a> rolling out onto the tracks in 1978. In 2013, this unique public art program returned after a 20-year hiatus as part of the <a href="https://www.festival.melbourne/2018/">Melbourne International Arts Festival</a>. It’s widely recognised as a sign of Melbourne’s <a href="https://theconversation.com/for-lovers-of-graffiti-pokemon-go-is-old-hat-62683">playful attitude to public space</a>.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/for-lovers-of-graffiti-pokemon-go-is-old-hat-62683">For lovers of graffiti, Pokémon Go is old hat</a>
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<p>The 2018 festival team embraced the concept of a playable art tram by providing a C2-class tram on Route 96. At 32.5 metres, it’s Melbourne’s longest tram.</p>
<p>Viewed through a smartphone camera, the tram is roughly five times as wide as the screen. This allows it to be scanned as it moves – somewhat like a musical score being read by a pianola. The speed of the tram generates different musical compositions when it’s stationary, accelerating, at full speed, slowing to a stop and so on. </p>
<p>The particular ways in which trams move through urban spaces is the main inspiration for the work. Making it playable is a way to visualise and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sonification">sonify</a> that movement.</p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">Troy Innocent talks about the playable city and his playable tram.</span></figcaption>
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<h2>The Playable City</h2>
<p>If a tram can be playable, then what other parts of the city could we play? While play in cities is <a href="https://theconversation.com/bringing-back-an-old-idea-for-smart-cities-playing-on-the-street-85756">not a new idea</a>, in the past two decades we have seen a rise of creative technologies that present new opportunities for artists and designers working in public space. </p>
<p>In 2012, the Watershed Pervasive Media Studio recognised this trend and founded the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2014/sep/04/playable-cities-the-city-that-plays-together-stays-together">Playable City</a> project – reacting against the technological bias of smart cities at the time. Originating in Bristol, the international network now includes eight cities around the world.</p>
<p>Through a series of commissions – including talking lamp posts and street lights that mirror your shadows – a methodology has been developed that talks across urban planners, artists, technologists, designers, academics, local government, architects, creative producers and beyond. Since the project started, <a href="https://www.fastcompany.com/3047795/the-3-generations-of-smart-cities">smart cities</a> have become more diverse and have started to learn from the conversations that the Playable City started – particularly around <a href="https://theconversation.com/from-smart-cities-1-0-to-2-0-its-not-only-about-the-tech-73851">citizen participation</a> and <a href="https://theconversation.com/we-should-create-cities-for-slowing-down-75689">co-creation</a>.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/we-should-create-cities-for-slowing-down-75689">We should create cities for slowing down</a>
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<h2>Melbourne as a playable city</h2>
<p>Playable cities bring people back into the civic conversation through playful strategies like public art, participatory design and urban play. A new conversation around Melbourne as a playable city is beginning to take shape. As <a href="https://theconversation.com/drawing-inspiration-from-imaginative-planners-past-97609">Melbourne grows</a>, this is a conversation that needs many voices and strategies.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/drawing-inspiration-from-imaginative-planners-past-97609">Drawing inspiration from imaginative planners past</a>
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<p>As the Art Tram program demonstrates, Melbourne has always been a playable city. Quentin Stevens’s 2007 book, <a href="https://books.google.com.au/books/about/The_Ludic_City.html?id=l299AgAAQBAJ&printsec=frontcover&source=kp_read_button&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q&f=false">The Ludic City</a>, features the urban landscape of Melbourne as a public playground – before the smartphone arrived and transformed public space.</p>
<p>The city has a long history of <a href="https://theconversation.com/next-level-thinking-a-way-forward-for-the-australian-videogame-industry-5280">independent</a> and <a href="https://theconversation.com/freeplay-reminds-us-videogames-matter-the-culture-debate-is-over-9825">experimental</a> game development. Having recently completed a Melbourne Knowledge Fellowship researching playable cities overseas, it is clear what the city has to offer to this conversation and we hope to establish an urban play community in Melbourne.</p>
<h2>Play that can reshape cities</h2>
<p>Games and play have become increasingly embedded in daily life over the past two decades – they have become pervasive. I’m interested in <a href="https://theconversation.com/designing-games-that-change-perceptions-opinions-and-even-players-real-life-actions-74217">games and play</a> that are situated in unfamiliar contexts and locations, that cross over disciplines, that get us thinking and seeing the world in new ways.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/designing-games-that-change-perceptions-opinions-and-even-players-real-life-actions-74217">Designing games that change perceptions, opinions and even players' real-life actions</a>
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<p>As games and play become something that is not only about entertainment but also challenge and re-imagine our ways of being in the world, we will experience a wider range of creative expression and possibilities. Play can literally create alternative realities for us that are not separate from the world but reshape the world we already live in. Playable cities connect people and create opportunities for people to participate in the processes that shape the cities they live in.</p>
<p>Try it for yourself: download the Accelerando app (<a href="https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/accelerando/id1438677123?mt=8">here</a> or <a href="https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=net.ludea.accelerando&hl=en_US">here</a>) and go play a tram!</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/106064/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Troy Innocent does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Melbourne has its first playable art tram – a 32.5-metre-long musical score played via augmented reality. So what’s the idea of playable trams and playable cities really about?
Troy Innocent, City of Melbourne Knowledge Fellow 2017-18, Senior Lecturer in Games and Interactivity, Swinburne University of Technology
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.