On the 17th of November I went to the Tate at St Ives, for an event called ‘What’s coming over the Hill’, which was run by Creative Skills, of Cornwall and it was about placing art in the public realm.
There were four speakers,
Locus+ is a visual arts commissioning agency that works with artists on the production and presentation of socially engaged, collaborative and temporary projects, primarily for non-gallery locations. In each project place or context is integral to the meaning of the artwork. Project manager Matt Hearn represents Locus+. http://www.locusplus.org.uk/
Dave Beech is an artist in the collective Freee. He lives in London and teaches at Chelsea College of Art. He is a regular contributor to Art Monthly and is represented by the International 3 gallery, Manchester. http://www.dave.beech.clara.net/
Graham Gussin uses a variety of media including drawing, photography, sculpture, film, video and sound installation. He produces works that engage with the human experience of the infinite, creating situations that interrogate our perception of the real and its relationship to imagined experience. He was commissioned by Locus + in 2006 to produce Illumination Rig in Newcastle upon Tyne, a work which was also show in the 8th Sharjah biennale in 2007. http://www.grahamgussin.co.uk/
The Chair Alistair Snow who is a member of the Arts Council and also a director for artist newsletter [a-n] magazine.
The above information was taken from Creative Skills http://www.creativeskills.org.uk/
All of the speakers were actively involved with placing their art in the public realm. A lot of the work was time based, performance art and site specific. And all of the work was somehow about challenging convention. Locus+ was an example of a funding body, which were not restricted by councils, who have their own agenda and instead pushed artistic boundaries providing the public a more realistic version of art today.
A topic, which was raised for discussion, was about the ‘quality’ of public art, how much of it seemed to be ill considered. Using the example that the artists applying for commissions often have their ideas diluted so that they are palatable or more generic, this may be partly to do with art needing to fulfil certian preconceived expectations.
The talks were very interesting, and relevant to Cornwall because Cornwall has recently been given a cash injection by private and public investors. The money will be spent on a massive project of regeneration within Cornwall namely ‘Heartlands’. Lots of initiatives have been put in place with the aim of introducing new business and culture into the area raising the economy and perception of Cornwall so it is on par with the rest of the country.
