Public Art

 I attended a Public Meeting on 25^th Sept 08 about the Crawick Artland Project  in Sanquhar in the Constituency. The former opencast mine at Crawick is to be transformed by world-renowned artist Charles Jenks to create a land art site of national significance.

The information leaflet distributed tells us “The 55 acre Crawick site already contains dramatic features and contrasts – shale desert, cliff, plateau, hillock and steep ravine. Many of these existing features will be accentuated in a huge earth moving operation, and a number of exciting new landforms will also be created. When this first phase is completed, by 2010, the visitor will be able to follow a circular pathway which, at its highest point,  will offer a breathtaking 360 degree panorama of Crawick Artland and the surrounding countryside.

“In the second phase of development, 2010-2015, a renge of artists will be commissioned to create additional land forms and sculptures.

“Crawick Artland has the potential to become an icon for the South of Scotland and a destination for art lovers here and abroad.”

This got me thinking more generally about Public Art. In these times of economic challenge, I believe it is important not to allow public art to become marginalised through lack of funding. Whether outside a hospital, at the entrance to our school or unexpectedly in some bleak corner, public art brightens all our lives and focuses our minds beyond the moment – setting us in our world and pointing to the future.

Artists’ livelihoods are threatened as much as the rest of us and my view is we should continue to support the Arts in the economic downturn.

How should Public Art be commissioned and what should be the priorities? Here is one artist’s view.

You can comment on his thoughts below in the Open Forum.

Public Art: an artist’s view.

Public Art comes about in a number of different ways, but many schemes involve a local authority and it is usual that a lengthy brief is first produced. This is then distributed among interested artists, along with a document explaining the authority’s policy on public art. There is often a clause in the brief that requires the involvement to some degree of the local community, the thinking being that this will increase a sense of ownership and appreciation of the work by the public. This is a worthy aim and can produce good results, but there are problems with the approach: how best to involve the local community? Most people are not artists and are uncomfortable when asked to take part in drawing or ideas workshops. There are also too many opposing views to accommodate when people are asked to agree on a theme.

 The best people to work with are children and some of my most successful projects of this kind have been for schools, making new gates and fence panels. Children are always eager to take part and my final designs are a composite made up of  their drawings. With adults however, things are different. The chosen artist does best to make him or herself known to any interested parties, engage in some energetic discussion, do some ‘research’ into the local area and then withdraw to come up with an idea. This will then be presented as the result of interaction with the local community, though there may be varying degrees to which this is genuinely the case. Close adherence to the policy can result in ideas that are diluted by a desire to please too many different people.

The artist of course prefers a completely free hand. This requires confidence and nerves of steel on the part of the commissioner but I think it is fair to say that much of the most exciting public art comes about when this is so. A good example is Anthony Gormley’s ‘Angel of the North’. This was not designed after a period of research into what would be relevant to the local environment or with any consultation with the local public. It was more a question of someone coming across a piece of Gormley’s work and having the vision to see that a large version in the right location would have a tremendously positive effect on the area. The Angel is first and foremost a very strong piece of sculpture and as such it has almost redefined its location and become an icon for the North of England. But the fact that it is in the north is incidental: it would have been equally successful as the Angel of the South, East or West.

The point is that the best art is not necessarily going to be achieved by following the formula of community involvement: it’s a logical approach which is easy to defend but it can also stifle the imagination of the artist. Public Art should exist to astound, astonish and delight the onlooker and should provide the artist with the opportunity to excel at what he or she does best. It is this which ought to be the primary requirement of any brief for public art commissions.

Chris Plowman        

http://www.chrisplowman.co.uk/