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Questions about public art

R

RugoseCone

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Aug 22, 2002
303
0
Howdy Macrumorers. I am currently in the process of attaining my Master of Fine Arts degree and was hoping some of you might be willing to answer some questions for me regarding "public art" (meaning not in a gallery or museum, but out and about in the world). Feel free to reply here or PM me if you prefer. Thanks in advance for your thoughts on any one question or preferably all of them.

1. Do you notice or stop to look at the public art you see during your normal routine?

2. Tell me about a piece of public art you like and why?

3. Tell me about a piece of public art you don't like and why?

4. Is public art with a particular ideology or possibly controversial, acceptable? If yes, even if you find it personally offensive?

5. If you had to choose between public art or a tasty little cake, which would you pick?

Again, thank you for taking any time to respond.


RC
 
I can assure you the cake is not a lie, at least not in this case since there is no promised reward.

I'm sure you two understood my point, but for those that might be confused, it's just a silly way of asking would you trade public works of art for something more trivial, like cake. Now don't misunderstand me, I don't think cake is a trivial matter generally, but compared to a work of art or beer…
 
1. Do you notice or stop to look at the public art you see during your normal routine?

Obviously it depends on the piece of art, but I would say yes. If it's something I find interesting, I'll stop and take a closer look. If it's not something I find interesting, I'll still notice it, but won't take the time to look closely.

2. Tell me about a piece of public art you like and why?

In my hometown, we had a number of Orca sculptures, all decorated by a different local artist. I really liked the effect, since you would stumble upon them at odd times just wandering around, and they were immediately identifiable as part of the program, but each one was unique and represented a different artistic vision and/or culture... really cool.

3. Tell me about a piece of public art you don't like and why?

Nothing comes to mind... there's been some public art I didn't particularly care for (can't think of a specific example right now), but that's more an issue of my own preferences than anything else. I wouldn't advocate for that sort of art to be removed because I didn't like it, it's just not to my tastes.

4. Is public art with a particular ideology or possibly controversial, acceptable? If yes, even if you find it personally offensive?

This is a bit of a mixed bag for me. I want to say yes, but I've never come across a piece of public art I find highly offensive, and that may well colour my opinion. And I certainly understand how public art could offend some groups (e.g., a painting or statue of Muhamad, since I understand it's highly offensive to show the Prophet in the Islamic faith)... on the other hand, though, I don't feel that the fact it might be offensive should prevent art from being shared. Overall, I think I would probably say that offensive art might belong in galleries: I've no problem with artists presenting controversial topics, but perhaps they do not belong in public. At least in a gallery, people can elect not to visit, or be warned before seeing it, which mitigates some of the problems.

5. If you had to choose between public art or a tasty little cake, which would you pick?

Public cake? :D I would opt for public art... everyone can enjoy it, and it makes life more interesting. I think having art on display, where people will see it (as opposd to in a gallery, where only a small subset of the population will ever see it) is a good thing. :)
 
1. Do you notice or stop to look at the public art you see during your normal routine?

yes

2. Tell me about a piece of public art you like and why?

hm there was some sort of worm thing in front of the local museum once made of metal .. no idea from whom etc. but it looked intresting

3. Tell me about a piece of public art you don't like and why?

apart of 1-2 ugly Jesus statues by people with not talent whatsoever standing i can't remember anything

4. Is public art with a particular ideology or possibly controversial, acceptable? If yes, even if you find it personally offensive?

never saw some obviously public art which was controversial to me

5. If you had to choose between public art or a tasty little cake, which would you pick?

coming from austria i have to say making a good cake can be a work of art ... a very endangered one at that !!!
 
chainprayer said:
lol we were quoting the game Portal. Sorry to go off topic :p
Click to expand...

chainprayer said:
I like it :) livens up a dull day! But I think the cake would win......

(there is no cake!)
Click to expand...

RugoseCone said:
I can assure you the cake is not a lie, at least not in this case since there is no promised reward.

I'm sure you two understood my point,
Click to expand...

Quite the contrary my friend. I've gots no idea what you're talking about. We were just quoting Portal.
 
Ah, but I understood what you two were doing. Silly, silly. Then again, so are my questions, not to mention the class which is asking me to conduct surveys. I'll be asking these questions locally in an adult beverage establishment (the pub), but wanted the wider audience of MR and its international membership to opine.

So far the responses are quite interesting and entertaining (Portal jokers included). Thanks to those that have replied so far…
 
RugoseCone said:
4. Is public art with a particular ideology or possibly controversial, acceptable? If yes, even if you find it personally offensive?

5. If you had to choose between public art or a tasty little cake, which would you pick?
Click to expand...

4. Inevitably public art has to be approved by some committee or sponsor or governmental agency and as a result ideology and potentially controversial subject get dumbed down or completely rejected......when public art is controversial, more often it's because it's so blandly uninteresting or out and out ugly that the public is astonished that money has been wasted on it; other artists will disdain the result because it's so dumbed down.

5. given that "public art" is usually little more than bland decoration for a public space, the idea of a tasty little cake certain is more appealing
 
1. Do you notice or stop to look at the public art you see during your normal routine?

Yes

2. Tell me about a piece of public art you like and why?

The Tempe Art Gallery's building itself is a piece of art, it looks very different from any other building I've seen.

3. Tell me about a piece of public art you don't like and why?

The Light Rail mosaics, they're oddly placed and easy to miss.

4. Is public art with a particular ideology or possibly controversial, acceptable? If yes, even if you find it personally offensive?

I find it acceptable, even if it's offensive because it's inspiring you to think more.

5. If you had to choose between public art or a tasty little cake, which would you pick?

Public Art, I'm not a huge fan of cake.
 
apsterling said:
The Tempe Art Gallery's building itself is a piece of art, it looks very different from any other building I've seen.
Click to expand...

No mention of the city hall?

DA_tempe.jpg


As for the survey, I agree with apsterling.
 
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