Public Art Research Articles

Anti-monument

Shahzia Sikander speaks to Faisal Devji about her shift from painting to sculpture and the meaning of public art in the contemporary United States.

지역문화공간의 관광경쟁력 지표개발에 관한 연구 : 공립박물관 및 미술관을 중심으로

지역문화공간의 관광경쟁력 지표개발에 관한 연구 : 공립박물관 및 미술관을 중심으로

Kamusal Sanat Yoluyla Koruma Bilincine Katkı: Mersin Balığı Örneği

Geçmişten günümüze kamusal mekânlarda özel bir yeri olan görsel sanat eserleri, çağdaş kamusal alanların estetik yüzleri olmanın yanı sıra topluma verilmek istenen çeşitli mesajlara da aracılık ederler. Bu mesajlar tarihsel, kültürel ve siyasal içerikli olabilir. Ayrıca bu eserler, günümüz sorunlarına değinerek topluma bilgi vermek, yaygın eğitime katkıda bulunmak ve bilinçlendirmek gibi amaçlar da taşıyabilir. Dünya çapında nesli tehlikede olan mersin balıkları da kamusal sanat yoluyla tanıtılabilir ve koruma bilinci geliştirilebilir. Bu çalışmada, mersin balıklarının dünyada ve ülkemizde geçmişten günümüze kamusal alanlarda görsel sanat objesi olarak kullanımları değerlendirilmekte ve koruma bilincinin geliştirilmesine katkı sağlayabilecek bazı öneriler sunulmaktadır.

A Study on the Evolution of Sculpture Cultural Communication Methods and Public Art Forms Applying the Hierarchical Analysis Approach

Abstract Based on hierarchical analysis, this paper constructs a model for evaluating the effect of sculpture culture dissemination, sculpture culture dissemination mode and evolution of public art form, and for the defects of hierarchical analysis, it constructs a complementary matrix by using fuzzy comprehensive evaluation method, and uses the scale method of 0.1-0.9 instead of 1-9 to optimize the performance of the model. This model is used to analyze the dissemination mode and dissemination driving mechanism of sculpture culture based on the model to analyze the dissemination mode and dissemination driving mechanism of sculpture culture, explore the influence of sculpture culture and cultural dissemination mode on the evolution of public art forms, and measure the mutual influence of high and low popularity sculpture culture in the dissemination process. The results show that public art forms, books, and public buildings have the highest frequency of dissemination of sculpture culture, with dissemination indexes above 0.65. Sculpture culture change has a promotion effect on art form evolution. The sculpture culture change index is 1, 1.2, 1.4, 1.6, respectively, and the probability of the evolution of public art form when the time node is 1 is 0.58, 0.65, 0.7, 0.78, respectively. The study provides a positive reference value for the study of spreading sculpture culture and developing public art.

Art in protest discourses – on the example of the Belarusian anti-government protest movement

In protest discourses the problem of using aesthetic and artistic elements lies in the centre of attention. The authors draw empirical material from the Belarusian protest movement, especially the anti-government protests of 2020. In the current study the problem of the use of aesthetic elements in protest discourses is considered in two aspects: 1) in the aspect of artistic activism, i.e. the involvement of artists in resistance activities; 2) in terms of the use of aesthetic speech acts in various forms of protest activity, i.e. as a special rhetorical tool with emphatic and persuasive function, but also as a means of expression with the satisfying function. As a result of this dichotomy, the article is divided into two parts. The authors point out that even though public art is not developed in Belarus (e.g. in the field of visual arts), aesthetic creativity is a very characteristic feature of both street poster discourses and forms of protest in the Internet.

Research on the Path of Civic-Political Construction of Music Appreciation Courses in Public Art Education in Colleges and Universities under the Perspective of the Internet

Abstract In this paper, the association rule algorithm is used to mine all the strong association rules in the public art education music appreciation course, and the course Civics, and the Inter-transaction algorithm is utilized to decompose the mining task into two parts of long and short itemsets according to the time-consuming time, so as to reduce the number of transactional intersection operations. A new pruning strategy has been adopted to effectively limit the number of candidate sets and improve the performance of the algorithm. Finally, based on the model of this paper, we analyzed the relevance of the music appreciation courses in public art education in colleges and universities to Civics and the change in students’ Civics literacy after integrated teaching. The results show that the mean value of students’ moral quality after teaching increased by 3.24 from 18.07±2.08, and the p-value of each index except music literacy is 0.000, which is significantly different. And sup=0.05, conf=0.622, lift=4.499 for Music Art A and Introduction to Basic Marxist Principles A. There is a strong correlation between teaching music and Civic and Political Science courses.

Integrating Regional Culture into Public Art within the Metro Public Space

Chinese artists with the development of China's economy and the accelerated construction of urbanization, public art expresses the collective consciousness and mainstream emotions in the process of China's social development. Seeking to express the revival and mutation of traditional culture in a proper artistic language, people hope to express their aspirations for the times through public art. China's urban subway public art is a typical manifestation of public art in the current stage of China's development, and has traveled with every important period of China's reform process, recording the traces of the times with works of art. China's subway public art has been diversified from the initial single form of expression, but there are still many shortcomings and problems, waiting for our artists and art workers to explore, China's subway public art to the world. China's urban subway public art has a successful case, but there is also the phenomenon of serious commercialization. China's urban subway public art has become an important platform for the historical heritage of the Chinese nation. The development of urban subway makes our urban public art more and more recognized by the public.

State Murals, Protest Murals, Conflict Murals: Evolving Politics of Public Art in Ukraine

Russian interference and invasion in Ukraine have transformed that nation’s historical practice of mural painting. A traditional art form with deep religious and political resonance in Ukraine, murals have become an instrument for patriotic mass mobilisation against the Russian military threat. From the mid-2000s, spraypaint graffiti underwent a gradual process of professionalisation and reconciliation with mainstream culture as Ukrainian municipalities pursued urban beautification initiatives and city-branding strategies to mitigate the socioeconomic challenges of postsocialism. It was this legacy of apolitical, privately funded street art that provided the foundations for patriotic muralism following the Maidan “Revolution of Dignity” and the Russian annexation of Crimea. Amidst the post-Maidan search for a postcolonial understanding of Ukrainian culture disentangled from Soviet and Russian influences, professionally produced murals in central urban districts proposed new visions of national identity. The war’s intensification since 2022 has resulted in a decentralisation of mural production. No longer reliant on international festivals in urban centres, conflict murals are now made by Ukrainian artists in large cities and small towns across the country. The newest murals represent a blending of the physical and digital—with a subject matter often inspired by viral conflict memes; artworks are, in turn, shared with worldwide audiences via social media.

Tracing urban transformations: Ni Weihua’s playful intervention in China’s evolving sociospatial landscape

This article delves into the multifaceted public art project entitled Tracing, orchestrated by Shanghai artist Ni Weihua, within the context of China’s sweeping socioeconomic transformation, as reflected in the geographical, spatial, and visual transformations of urban peripheries. Beginning in 2018 when Ni initiated it by meticulously tracing around the pictorial vestiges adorning dilapidated walls in Shanghai’s urban outskirts using black acrylic paint, Tracing has evolved into a collaborative endeavor spanning the globe. This article explores the origins and development of Tracing, situating it within Ni’s body of work, which responds to the ever-changing spatial and visual landscapes of China’s urbanization. Blurring the boundaries of graffiti, drawing, performance art, conceptual art, documentary photography, and media art, Tracing serves as both documentation and embodiment of the ongoing struggle between state-led spatial production and grassroots initiatives in the face of urban regeneration and urban-rural integration efforts. This article contends that Tracing, through its artistic, playful, and liberating approach to spatial intervention and image creation, empowers Ni and other participants to engage with marginalized spaces, amplify the voices of disadvantaged communities, and complicate prevailing narratives of urban development in China and beyond. In doing so, it contributes to a bottom-up mode of visual knowledge production about urbanism and expands the role of art as a medium for public participation, collective expression, and community building.

Mapping policy pathways: Urban referencing networks in public art policies

This article examines the dynamics of inter-referencing between cities and develops the concept of the ‘Urban Referencing Network’ as a representation of the references made by cities to one another in policy documents. The study employs public art policies, specifically the Percent for Art policy, to investigate the structure of inter-referencing within the urban referencing network. Using a corpus of policy documents from 26 Anglophone cities with over one million residents, we analyse 150 documents containing 2178 inter-references. Combining network measurements and regressions, we explore the emergence of central nodes and the mechanisms influencing their formation. The broader field of arts and cultural policies, with its extensive inter-urban connections and professional networks, provides fertile ground for studying urban referencing networks. By integrating literature on policy mobility and urban networks, this study contributes to a deeper understanding of the circulation of urban ideas and the interplay between cities in policy-making processes. The results demonstrate that only a few cities, including New York, Chicago, London, Seattle, Los Angeles, and Montreal, emerge as central nodes, attracting the other cities’ attention. Attributes of the referenced cities, like economic importance, iconicity and early adoption, determine to a great extent who are the most central nodes.

Avant-garde or democracy? Transformations and Dilemmas of the U.S. public art programme in the 1970s

ABSTRACT The “Works of Art in Public Places” programme was established by the National Endowment for the Arts right after its creation in 1965. It first subsidized modernist sculptures from well-known artists. But in the 1970s, it began to support more recent and experimental trends, breaking with modernism, which was then criticized for producing an art disconnected from its social environment. Therefore, public officials attributed to postmodernist site-specific artworks the power to reintegrate art into social life and thus to disseminate it to a wider audience. This aesthetic was favoured less for its observable effects than because it made it possible to (superficially) resolve a fundamental contradiction faced by any arts policy in a liberal-democratic regime, between the recognition of the autonomy of the artist and the will to improve access to the arts.

SPATIAL REUSE STRATEGIES OF OLD INDUSTRIAL BASES IN NORTHEAST CHINA: FROM THE PERSPECTIVE OF LANDSCAPE REVITALIZATION

With the transformation of China's economic structure, the reuse and renewal of old industrial bases has become an important issue for urban development. This article takes the old industrial base in Northeast China as an example and explores strategies for spatial reuse from the perspective of landscape revitalization. This article lists cases of industrial base revitalization around the world, exploring how to revitalize the old industrial base in Northeast China. This article aims to analyze the current situation and existing problems of the old industrial base in depth, propose targeted landscape revitalization strategies, and provide new ideas and methods for the renewal and reuse of the old industrial base. After conducting on-site research on residents, the problems that need to be solved in the spatial reuse of the old industrial base have been identified, and solutions have been provided. By leaving as much green space as possible, the overall ecological environment of the park can be restored. It can also activate idle abandoned space and increase the economic and ornamental value of the park. Public art can be introduced, and when designing, the role of mass art should be fully utilized to promote industrial culture and shape local spirit. Finally, by digitizing the protection, display, and utilization of industrial heritage, it is possible to achieve comprehensive and efficient protection and revitalization of industrial heritage in a high-quality and efficient manner.

Research on "Publicness" in Public Art under the Perspective of Co-construction Concept

In the early stages of the reform and opening-up, the concept of co-construction gradually entered the public consciousness. China began to emphasize community development, community participation, and grassroots governance. Over time, China has increasingly emphasized multi-party participation, democratic decision-making, and collaborative construction in urban renewal, community governance, rural transformation, and cultural development. This emphasis on social participation and collaborative construction has gradually embedded the concept of co-construction, filled with a spirit of humanistic care, into the hearts of the people. This paper aims to delve into the "publicness" in public art under the perspective of the co-construction concept. By introducing relevant concepts such as co-construction, the paper clarifies the core concept of "publicness" under the co-construction perspective. It thoroughly analyzes the inseparable relationship between the co-construction concept and publicness in public art, elaborating on how the co-construction concept influences and guides the practice of public art design.

The Impact Of Public Art On People's Well-Being Under The Influence Of Pandemics

The COVID-19 pandemic has severely impacted the well-being of people across the globe, and there is an urgent need to explore novel and feasible ways to enhance the happiness of residents. This review article explores the potential of public art as a response to this challenge. Through a review of existing literature, this article first outlines the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on people. Next, this study describes the diverse attributes of public art, emphasizing its ability to enhance leisure and social experiences and promote community engagement. Finally, drawing on psychological, sociological, and urban planning research, this paper synthesizes the evidence for the impact of public art on people's well-being. The findings suggest a conceptual framework for public art to enhance people's well-being. The proposed conceptual framework suggests the adoption of quality public art under the influence of the COVID-19 pandemic, thereby stimulating people's well-being in public spaces. This study suggests further research on how public art can enhance aesthetics to promote cultural heritage and improve people's leisure and emotional experiences to stimulate people's well-being. The results are significant and will help artists create more high-quality public artworks for urban public spaces to evoke people's sense of well-being.

Fine art as an integral part of architecture: Political and social aspects of the formation of this synthesis in the 20th century

Abstract The theme of the connection of visual arts with architecture, or the cooperation of visual artists with architects in post-war Europe, basically follows two lines: a theoretical line and a political-institutional line. Just as knowledge of the history of art and the history of architecture is necessary in the analysis of this period, knowledge of the political-economic circumstances is necessary in the field of realisations in architecture, because by definition, this public art is a political affair and is not an independent creation. Art in architecture was promoted not only in communist countries (for ideological reasons), but also in Western Europe as an aesthetic cultivation of contemporary architecture. From the mid-1950s onwards, visual art in architectural space appeared more and more frequently, which led to the adoption of legislative measures that regulated and supported this practice. A gradual transformation in the understanding of the task can be observed over the period under review, or the position of public art, presented as part of architecture or public space. This is naturally due to social development. If at the beginning of the 1950s it was a mission to convey ideology and indoctrinate it, in the next stage the focus shifts more towards design with the task of cultivating the environment and creating a certain atmosphere. The study also peripherally explores forms of arts support in the context of other European countries. The idea of integration between art and architecture dates back to the very origins of both disciplines. During the avant-garde movement at the beginning of the twentieth century, it acquired a new meaning and social purpose and became one of the most defining characteristics of modernism. Modernism arose from the expectation of moral and material reconstruction of the world devastated by war, which served as a tool to strengthen collective identity and, consequently, to forge the bond between the city and its inhabitants. Our study traces the development and contexts of the relationship and funding of visual arts in architecture in the Slovak and European context in the 20th century.

Did the New Testament Authors Believe the Earth Is Flat?

Certain scholars find evidence that the authors of the New Testament held to the cosmology of the ancient Near East, in which the sky is regarded as a solid dome over a flat earth. However, it was uncontroversial among Greco-Roman astronomers that the earth was spherical and was surrounded by a celestial sphere of stars. This article explores knowledge of the “two spheres” model of the cosmos in the first century CE, as this would have been become known to inhabitants of the Mediterranean world through education, word of mouth, popular astrology, and representations of the terrestrial and celestial spheres on sundials, coins, and public art. Based on these factors and the sophistication of their compositions, a number of contributors to the New Testament likely understood the earth to be spherical; their knowledge has exegetical and hermeneutical implications for discussions about scripture vis-à-vis modern science.

Memory studies on the frontlines of the culture wars

On 6 January 2023, New College of Florida, a small public liberal arts college, made headlines when it was announced that prominent figures in the American culture wars were appointed to its board of trustees in an effort to turn this progressive institution into a test bed for right-wing educational reform. This pedagogical reflection examines how the culture wars enact illiberal legislative and curricular reforms that attempt do more than censor difficult histories, they seek to keep the traumatic past in the past. Teaching under increasingly precarious conditions, I argue that it is more important than ever to connect history to the present in our classrooms and offer insights into how a pedagogy of vulnerability might lead to reconciliation despite the right’s efforts to foment division and polarization.

Liminal museum. Artistic installations at the threshold of public realm

The concept of liminal museum looks at the potential of public art in the liminal space of exhibition venues, in between urban realm and the interior of public buildings, as an innovative locus of social engagement. More specifically, we study the status of artistic interventions that take place on the façade through the definition of three fields of investigation: juxtaposition, ephemerality, media. We present the case study of a curatorial project developed in Altamura, Italy, within the dimension of living labs used for citizens’ engagement in art production and education. This leads to the issue of co-habitation of museum institutions with surrounding neighbourhoods, interpreting the façade as a symbolic interface that mediates values and languages of art.

Expanding the public space through art. A conversation with Pablo Helguera

Pablo Helguera (Mexico City, 1971) is a New York based artist working with installation, sculpture, photography, drawing, socially engaged art and performance. Helguera’s work focuses in a variety of topics ranging from history, pedagogy, sociolinguistics, ethnography, memory and the absurd, in formats that are widely varied including the lecture, museum display strategies, musical performances and written fiction. His work as an educator has usually intersected his interest as an artist. This intersection is best exemplified in his project, The School of Panamerican Unrest (2003–2006), a nomadic think-tank that physically crossed the American continent by car from Anchorage, Alaska to Tierra del Fuego, making 40 stops in between. Covering almost 20,000 miles, it is considered one of the most extensive public art projects on record as well as a pioneering work for the new generation of artworks regarded under the area of socially engaged art. The contribution, in the form of a conversation, will retrace Helguera’s work to focus on questions of publicness, art and participation in a moment in which socially engaged practices are increasingly established in the contemporary art realm. By articulating the artist’s strategies and operating methodologies, the aim is to shed light on ways in which art can contribute to widen the public discourse on the social and political life and create accessible spaces of meeting, confrontation and dialogue, in which a counter- narrative to the dominant neoliberal frame work can take place.

Research on the Construction of New Studio System Teaching Mode for Public Art Majors

The construction of a new studio teaching mode for public art majors can provide students with practical learning platforms and environments, which can help to cultivate high-quality and innovative artistic talents and provide new ideas and methods for the integration of engineering, industry-university-research fusion of talent cultivation. This paper analyzes the role of the new studio teaching mode for public art majors, the problems faced and the construction strategy, in order to cultivate more art talents with high quality and innovation ability.