That artwork should have lasting cultural significance has been an expectation
of “great” fine art over time. But given the scholarship of
the past 30 years, the multiple interpretations of text and imagery, multiple
understandings among differing cultures within any given national borders,
and the swift shiftings of values that can happen after any event, this
requirement may be slipping. Film, fashion, music, food: all change with
the rapidity of an adolescent to reflect recent events, concerns, and
economics. Why expect any other cultural output to remain separate? We
come to see these cultural forms as metaphors for the social, political
and economic situation of the era and context of their making. The eventual
outdatedness is both nostalgic and relieving, the signature of an aura
we once lived in, while also a sign of having moved on.
Public art is constructed to live in public space. Public space is Now.
It is an interactive, performative space, sometimes a place, sometimes
a forum. The temporary public project that is designed for either context
can be as anonymous and hit-and-run as a Guerrilla Girl poster. Or it
can have carefully considered site-specific social relevance, like a bar
coaster concerning domestic violence distributed to and with support from
taverns. The temporary project can boil up in response to immediate issues,
can actively trigger a dialogue. Because it can present or question ideas
held by citizens, and because those may change over time, temporary public
art would not and should not last. I propose that the point of temporary
public art is to serve as an excuse for conversations, a trigger. The
work may acknowledge problems at a relevant site of their occurrence;
it can be designed with knowledgeable partners from the “issue community;”
it can be a forum for the populace normally spoken TO. Particularly as
work is being designed for the internet, the presentations and discussions
by citizens can harken back to a more democratic “agora,” while
including more members of the culture in its conversations.
I do make “things,” as well. Things which are commentaries,
musings, on the public research I do. These are usually familiar, decorative,
everyday objects such as wrapping paper, placemats, flags, objects designed
to domesticate a place or activity. These things slip into our lives as
a matter of course, unquestioned, and yet now have been overprinted with
thoughts about life underneath the decorative cover. As such they are
meant to declare what’s really going on, what’s True, about
the tight, private government within the home.