Mapping the Terrain

{Notes from the class presentation}

From: Adam Eldridge

New genre of art Public Art

The book is pretty much a collection of essays about public art

This includes: Social intervention and humanizing urban environment.

Public art in the beginning mostly consisted of:

-Vietnam war protests

-community art (ghetto art)

-Feminist art -abortion issues -sex abuse

-Marxist art

Rise of Public art = censorship

The question of is Graffiti public art?

It is for everybody and any one can be a critic including the homeless

Why does Graffiti matter?

Placement Tagging rights gang property and turf wars or as a community project

Public art is a feminist of Marxist origin?

Matt doesn’t believe this

He says: don’t believe it

Think of public art as a blank slate

This book is too define in the origins

Trust your instincts

-Museum standards-

What if the DAM invited the best Graffiti art from around the world?

The cleared out the whole museum and let these artist go to town on the walls?

Why not leave the art up for 90 days?

The museum would draw people from all over

But does the DAM want that kind of and audience?

Should communities have a sense of censorship?

The idea of multifaceted art

It’s hard to make gumbo that taste good

It is hard to do a piece of art that will include all the issues: Homelessness, racism, land rights, water rights, culture, and religion rights

But going off of one of these ideas to spark ideas and creating something that ends up pulling in a lot of these issues is good

Artist should be true to their voice to please yourself and be aware of the issues, don’t people please you might lose the meaning