m looking for defenition of public art...? what kind of public do see art work. why do most people take art as obslete activity? is it the nature of it like depends on the individual?! plz if some one can help me put with this...ill be grateful...i m wroking on my dissertation. desprately in need of help. any artilces or refrences...plz mail..

-- tatheer daryani (tatheerf@hotmail.com), August 03, 2003

Answers

hi Tatheer. Firstly, is this a serious enquiry ? Your spelling/grammer needs a little work - sorry to be critical, but did you mean "obsolete" ? I'm a graduate Diploma in education (secondary - art major ) at Curtin university in Perth, and have completed an honours degree in fine art here at Curtin, just to let you know who I am. Secondly, could you please tell me what a "dissertation" is - excuse my ignorance. Thirdly, your question/enquiry is problematic - it needs a specific context. What type of definition are you looking for ? Whose definition ? You need to be scepticle of any 'definitions' when it comes to art, as catagorization by language attempts to place art into neat little boxes in order to facilitate an understanding of art for those who ( generally speaking )are un-educated in the feild of fine art. The whole notion of "public art" is problematic. I believe that alot of what is produced as "public art" is not art at all, rather it is something else. When artists apply for public art projects, they go through a rather rigorous filtering process before their proposal is even accepted. Then, often they cannot really exploit thier "artistic liscence" in their project as what gets produced is also subject to stringent scrutiny by people who may, or may not have an art background. By the time the artist's idea has been through all the processes that are a part of the public art process, it is actually something else, which requires a lengthy discussion to "define". The other problem is what exactly is "public space"?. If the area in which alot of public art projects are located is carefully analysed in terms of "ownership" of the space, all sorts of ambiguities can arise. If you respond to this, I may be able to dig up some references. Please respond.

-- Roland Kopcsandy (rols100@hotmail.com), August 06, 2003.

hi roland, thanx for rerplying,and yes my inquiry bout this is serious. a dissertations is a detailed research work one does for a dgree or a diploma, its a requirement. so i m doing my grad in sculpture. as for my miastakes in grammar/spelling is concerned i m from Pakistan. my mother tongue is urdu not english.so i m prone to make mistakes here n there. so pardon me. ok...back to the subject, ill just breif u to the art scene here, its not the same like its there...u know like literacy rate here is so low...so ppl dont have awareness as to waqt is art...they think its a meaning less thing . and i also want to knpow if the monuments of sculpture at the roundbouts are included in art or not. they are interactive with the public yes. but i guess i want to know where it stands. i m basically going to prove thru my paper that art now is being introduced to public and they are responding to it some way ir the other. i m talking bout art projects that have been here not in gallery spaces nbut on raods and streets. one more thing...wat is a public space? do we artists have right to a public space? who are the public? any catogories? ill be watijg for ur reply...thanx. will write later. =regards -Tatheer

-- Tatheer Daryani (tatheerf@hotmail.com), August 16, 2003.

Hi. You are addressing some very political as well as pragmatic questions in your disseration, Tatheer. Good luck with it. You might try looking at this website to read about some of the public art work created in Los Angeles:

http://www.usc.edu/isd/archives/la/pubart/

In America there is great freedom to make art, complain about art, politicize art as well as ignore it. Art that becomes part of the public experience is certainly prone to be politicized, complained about, etc. Art that is installed on PRIVATE property but that can be seen by the public in passing is not so easily manipulated. Good luck.

-- Amie Oliver (aoliver2@vcu.edu), December 05, 2003.