Public Art in Adelaide
Public art of late has been used in the place of design and architecture (the debate about Adelaide's conservative architecture is best left to an outsider now, viz Peter Sellers). A lack of confidence exists about the ability of our designers to d esign objects for public places, be that paving, seats, fences, fountains or street signs! As our designers have been doing a poor job of designing all those ubiquitous urban objects, artists are being asked to do some of this work in the name of public art. What seems to be happening though is a weakening of the artistic possibilities that more traditional approaches to public art could deliver - now instead of poor design or bad architecture are we simply getting weak art?
