Debated Territory: Toward a Critical Language for Public Art

Debated Territory: Toward a Critical Language for Public Art

Suzanne Lacy

Lacy, Suzanne. "Debated Territory: Toward a Critical Language for Public Art." Mapping the Terrain: New Genre Public Art. Seattle, WA: Bay, 1995. 176-81. Print.

Date: 10/10/2012

List of primary claims made in this reading:

Suggestions for New Genre Public Art analysis:

-artist intention

-works meaning

-interactive quality

According to Lacy, there are four “nonfixed” roles for artist activists, “fluctuating between private and public experience.” These roles are artist as experience, artist as reporter, artist as analyst, and artist as activist.

Subjectivity and Empather: Artist as Experiencer - In this role, artists “enter the territory of the ‘other’” and then reports on the observations made in that experience.

Information Revealed: Artist as Reporter - Artist gather information to make it available to others and then “reports” the findings, making them available to a general public. It is possible also, that as a reporter of a “conscious selection” of information, the artist also aims to “persuade” their audience.

Situations and Solutions: Artist as Analyst - Artists are less focused on visual appeal more focused on the constructs of their practice.

Building Consensus: Artist as Activist - “…where art making is contextualized within real situations and the audience becomes an active participant.”

Audience - By categorizing the audience into concentric circles, Lacy demonstrates that the more responsibility an individual has in the existence of the project the closer they are to the center. This construction of audience is “flexible and fluid in nature,” as long as the nebulous stays mostly intact.

In regards to criticism and evaluation of new genre public art, Lacy proposes that perhaps the symbolic intentions of the work is more important than the process. 

This reading is eye-opening in the questions it asks the artist, audience, critic in regards to the execution and effectiveness of the community art project. These are question I will come back to and ask myself when developing programming for community-based projects.

 Key Quotes:

“Within art criticism, public art has challenged the illusion of a universal art and introduced discussions on the nature of public – its frames of reference, its location within various constructs of society, and its varied cultural identities.” (Pg. 174)

“Notions of interaction, audience, artists’ intentions, and effectiveness are too freely used, often without sufficient interrogation and almost never within comprehensive conceptual schemes that differentiate and shed meaning on practice.” (Pg. 174)

“In this way the artist becomes a conduit for the experience of others, and the work a metaphor for relationship.” (Pg. 176)

“When there is no quick fix for some of our most pressing social problems, there may be only our ability to feel and witness the reality taking place around us. This empathy is a service that artists offer the world.” (Pg. 176)

“To take a position with respect to the public agenda, the artist must act in collaboration with people , and with an understating of social systems and institutions. Entirely new strategies much be learned: how to collaborate, how to cross over with other disciplines, how to choose sites that resonate with public meaning, and how to clarify visual art process symbolism for people who are not education in art. In other words, artist activists question the primacy of separation as an artistic stance and undertake the consensual production of meaning with public.” (Pg. 178)

In regards to criticism – “Likewise, the audience’s beliefs and the intention with respect to th eart and its subjects become part of the total picture.” (Pg. 182)

“It is possible that process-oriented public art is at its most powerful when operating symbolically.” (Pg. 183)

List of facts/stats discussed in this reading:

New Deal  - “was a series of economic programs enacted in the United States between 1933 and 1936. They involved presidential executive orders or laws passed by Congress during the first term of President Franklin D. Roosevelt. The programs were in response to the Great Depression, and focused on what historians call the "3 Rs": Relief, Recovery, and Reform. That is, Relief for the unemployed and poor; Recovery of the economy to normal levels; and Reform of the financial system to prevent a repeat depression.”  - Wikipedia

Question of the reading?

 “Is an actualized work more effective that an proposal?”

“Is a work more effective if a community is mobilized toward some end?”