"I am looking at the final design and thought 'what went wrong?' Weeks earlier the Arts Committee had selected an exciting concept design. Why did the artist change the concept design so dramatically?"
In a city with so many cultural institutions focused upon the national agenda, the new Canberra Museum and Gallery is a significant symbol of the ACTs (Australian Capital Territory) increasing confidence in a local identity, interdependent with its national role.
Challenging work, work that made some form of investigative observation about where we stand at this point in time was virtually not appearing anymore....In Adelaide and other cities, decorative design work, which is often very literal and subservient to conservative briefs, commercial interests, political agendas and restrictive models has appeared everywhere under the name of sculpture.
If art in community places isn't for the community using those places, then who is it for? Should all art in public places have immediate community appeal, or reflect those communities in some way, or even have community contributions? And if the answer to any of these is yes, need this impinge on the quality of the art?
The Queenslanders Art Alliance was established in 1986, maintaining an artist register as well as project management programs collaborating with the Queensland government in the 'Designing Environments' strategy which is intended to consolidate the quality of the collaborative process in public art projects. Looks at the Kangaroo Cliffs Boardwalk project.
Exhibtion Review Coming Round the Mountain: Excursive Sight
Plimsoll Gallery,
Centre for the Arts University of Tasmania Hobart
17 January - 1 February 1998
Exhibition Review Contemporary Art in Asia: Traditions/Tensions Organised by the Asia Society New York
Art Gallery of Western Australia
6 February - 29 March 1998
Looks at issues of the law and public art with references to Richard Serra's 'Sculpture No.3' and Christo's 'The Umbrellas: a joing project for Japan and USA'.
Exhibition review All this and Heaven too Curated by Juliana Engberg The Adelaide Biennial of Australian Art
Art Gallery of South Australia
28 February - 13 April 1998
Looks at Herring Island Environmental Sculpture Park, Victoria and the issues which surround putting art into parks and public spaces. Unlike the specialised designs of the contemporary art gallery, the 'environment' is a bundle of concepts distributed across the city and suburbs.
The Percent for Art Scheme in Western Australia uses an allocation of a percentage of the construction cost, usually one percent, of State Capital Works projects to commission artworks. The artist's role is to create works that are integrated with the building or the landscape.