01.Mapping Chapters 3,4,6,7

7/29/2019 01.Mapping Chapters 3,4,6,7

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CONN.CTlVE AESTHETICS, AIllT ",'TEIll INOIYtDlI"'lISI'I} Sill. G.ifi4

As a critic in the nineties, I am not really interested in writing catalogessayl or art reviews. what I am concerned with is understanding thenature of ourcultural myths and how they evolve-Ihe institutionalframework we take for granted but which nevertheless determines ourlives. One question that has preoscupied me, for inStance, is what it meansto be a Msuccenful" artist working in the world today, and whether theimage that comes to mind il one we can suppOrt and believe in. Certainlyit seems al if that image is undergoing a'radical re-visioning atlhis lime.

Thedominant modes of thinking in our society have conditionedus to characterize art primarily as specialized objects, created not for moralor practical or.social reasons, but rather to becontemplated and enjoyed,!Within the mo"ern era, art was dcfined by its autonomy and sclf-suffi- ciency, and by its isolation from the ren of society. Exposing the radicalautonomy of aesthelics 11 lomtthing th u is not "neutral" but is an activeparticipant in ca iulist ideolo has been a r imar accompl ishment oft e aggressive ground-clearing work of deconltruction. Autonomy,wenow see, has condemned art to social impotence by turning it into justanother clan ofobjecu for marketin and conIum tion.

anlc production and consumption, competitiveself-asscrtion, andthe maximizingof profiu are all crucial to our society's notion of luccess.These nm e assumptions,leading to maximum energy now and mindlesswaste at the upense of poorer countries and of the environment, have alsobecome the formula for global destruction. Art iuelf is not some ancillaryphenomenon but is heavily impl,icated in this ideology. In the art world,we a re a ll aware of the extent to which a power-oriented, bureaucraticprofessionalism has promoted a one-sided, consumeristic attitude towardart. InSii tutional models based on ofproduc tdeve lopment andcareer achievement echo the stereotypic patriarchal ideals and values that

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hIve been intern.lind by our wholeculture and made to pervade everyexperience. It i s nOt hu d to sec how the inl1ituliorn and praClices of the aftworld have been 'nodded on the sameconfigurations of power ana profitthat support '1 a maintain our dominant worldview. This -busi-ness as usual" psychology of affluence is now threatening the ecosystem inwhich we live with its dysfunctional values and way oflife; it is a singlesystem manipulating the individual into the spiritually empty relationshipof the producer to theproduct.

Many people arc aware that the .ystem isn't working, that it is timeto move on and 10 revise thedestructive myths that guide us, Our entirecultural philosophy and its narrowness of concernare under intense scru-tiny. Among artists, there is a greater critical awareness of the social roleof and a rejection of modernism's bogus ideology of nClllrality. Manyartists now refuse the notion of a completely narcissistic exhibition prac-tice as the desirable goal for art, For inua'nce, performance aTlist GuillennoG6mezPena nates: "Most of the ...ork I 'm doing currently comes, I think,from thc realiution that we're living in a state of emergency. , .. I feel that -.morc than everwe must step ouaide the strictly art arena; It i. not enoucii............ - ....to make art.MIn a similar vein, arlS administrator Linda Frye Burnhamnaclaimed that gallery art has lost ill resonance for her, especially gallery artby what she terms "whiteyuppies.- -There is too much goingon outside,she says. "Rcallife is calling. I call no longer ignore the clamor of dius-ter-economic, spiritual, environmcntal, political disaster-in the ....orldin which I move.- Perceptions such as lhese are a direct challenge to theartist's normative.ense of his or her role in the world: at stake is one'spersonal identity in relation to a particular view of life thatour culture hasmade available to

That the art world's values, structures, and behaviors arc in greatferment has been evident for some time, and the deconstructions of theeighties continue to reverberate profoundly. A climax in these upheavalswas reached for many with the controversial 1993 Biennial at theWhitneyMuseum of American Art-the first multiculturaland political Biennial-which dcmonstrated that the art world isundergoing a dismantling of illprofessional elitism and that its closed, scM-referential ranks arc under

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heavy siege. Much of the new art focuses on social creativity rather than onself-expression and contradicts the myth of the isolated genius private...subjective, behind dosed doors in the studio, separate from others and theworld. As I shall argue in this !Sa creativit in the modern worgone an In an with individualism and has been viewed strictly as anindiviCluaJ phenomenon. 1 believe Ihi. conception of art i. one of the thingsIl1"at are now changing.

As the work of arlisu who are disculSed in this book makes clear,there is a distinci .hift in the locus of creativity from the autonomous, self-contained individual to a new kind of dialogical structure that frequently isnot the product of asingle individual but i. the result of acollaborativeand interdependent procen. As anists step out of the old framework andreconsider what it means to bean artist, they arc reconstructing the rela-tionship between individual and community, between art work and public.Looking at art in terms of social purpose rather than visual style, andsetting a high priority on to what is Other, causes many ofourcherished notions to break down: the vision ofbrisk sales, well-patronizedgalleries, good reviews, and a large, admiring audience. A. Richard Shus-,terman write. in PrlfgmlftiJt Atsthetia. "The fact that our entrenchedinstitutions of an have long been elitist and oppressive does not meanthat they must remain such. . . . There is no compelling reason to acceptthe narrowly aesthetic limits imposed by the established ideology ofautonomous art.

In February 1994, I had occasion to tape a conversation withthe an dealer Leo Castelli. in which he commented about the Whitneyshow: "I t was a sca change, not just any change. Because I had to acceptthe fact that the wonderful days of the era that I participated in, and inwhich I had played a subllantial role,were over. In HIfJ ModeT1liJmFlfi/ed? I wrote, "Generally speaking, the dynamics of professionaliu-tion do nOt dispose artists to accept their moral role; professionals arc con-ditioned 10 avoid thinking about problems that do not bear directly ontheir work." Since writing this adecade ago, it seems as if the picture haschanged. The polilics of reconcepNalilltion has belun, and the searchfor a" " ' aceRda for art hn become. coftKious RITCh.

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.In considering the implicationsof this "sea change," one thing ilbe able to see current aeSlhetic ideology as actively contributing .to..

the molt seriou. problems of our timemeans breaking the cultural tranceand requires a change of heart. Thewhole framework ofmodcrnist ae.-thetic, was tied to the objectifying consciousnessof the .cientific world-view; like scientists, artists in our culture have been conditioned not toworry about the applicationl or consequence. or moral purpose of theiractivity. It is enough to generate results. But just as the shortcomings of"objective scicnce are becoming apparent, we are also bcginning to per-ceive how the reductive and neutralizingaspect. of aesthetics and "art forart's sake" have significantly removed art from any living .ocial context ormonl imperative except that of academic art hinory and the gallery sy.-tern. We are beginning to perceive how, by disavowing art's communaldimension. the romantic myth of autonomous individualism has crippledart's effectiveness and influence in the social world.

The quest for freedom and autonomy has been nowheremarized for me than in these comments: by the painter1&!iI1ue1itIpublished in the catalog of hil exhibition at theWhitechapel Art Galleryin London in 198]:The /lrtiu if not wpomible to /llIyanr. His focilll roft is /lJociII1; his only wpon-_.Jibiil'l)' comists in 1I11lfltitNdr to th t work ht dOrJ. Thtrr i fno rommNllic,dionwith AnypNhlic whA(Jotvrr. Th t Arl;ll clln 11111 /10 qNtJfioll, A/Ill hr milk" 110JIAtrJllelll; hr offrrlllo jnformilliotl. lind hif wor" ClfnnOI br Nltd. II if Iht rlldprodNct which CONIIU, in my Clflt, Ihr picturt.

More than I decadeold, these commentl by now may sound hope-leuly out ofdate. but in a more recent interview in Art NewJ, it was dearthat the artist had in no way altered his views. The idea of changing orimproving the world is alien to me and seemsludicroul, Basclitz said.Society functions, and always has, without the artist. No artist has everchanged anything for better or wone. Hidden Inhind the.e commen" i.the penonal and cultural mylh th.c hu formed Iheartial'S idencity in themodem _ .... . .,..01 ....


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_.....Plaubm wnItt' ar the tJ.Fnni"l 01 the modem .,... -tJw one can "Ply hMr;1 by avoidi", it. And that an be done byli.lnl in tho world ofar t . POt]e..n.Paul S.nte, Ihe exillcnli,1 truth of thCl hum.n .iNltion wu ill cantingeRer, mIn', .en.e that he doc. not belong-i. not ncteJury-lo theuniverse. Since life wu arbitnry and meaninglclI, Satireadvised thai wemust allicarn to Jive without hope. and Ihe English writerCyril Connollysummed up. whole cultural elho. of alienationwilh Ihne now legendarycommenl!: "I t i, clo'ing time in the garden. of the West. Prom now on anartist will be judged only by the reJonance of hiolitude and the qualityof hi. despair."Wriling about ,hi. form distrust, this VOte of"no confidence" in the universe. Colin Wilson in An lntroduction to theNnJ.J Ex;,untiAlism refers to the paradigmof alienacion,u the "fulilityhypothesis" of life-che nothingneu, estrangement, and alienation thsthave formed a considerable part of Ihe image we have ofourselve.

My friend PatriciaCatto, who teaches at the Kan.,uCity ArtIn.titute, now refers to this particular mind-.et as "bad modernism," tn acourse she gives on reframing che lelf,her nudents are about thedangerof believing that humans (whetherthey are artim or not) are some-howouuide of, or exempc from, a respon.ibility to .ociety, or to Ihe envi-ronment. We have been taught to experience the .elf at private, .ubjective.,.eparace, from others and the world. This nolion of individualism hat socompJecely ltNctured artistic identity and colored our view ofart that evenfor an artin like Christo, whose public projecl' such II Running Fenet sndthe more recenc Umbrelttu require the participation and cooperation ofchousands of people, inner con.ciousnen is 1Ii11 dominated by the feelingof being independenc,.olitary, and 'eparate. tn an interview in FLuh Art,.........-d1The work of 'f t i, irr.tiollAl"."dperh.pl ir:re!pon,ible. Nobody nteds i,. The_T k i l . huge individu.liflk ,tlluTt th.t k:inrirely dedrieri b, me.. " Oneof the greolttllcontributions ofmoriern .r t i. the notio" 01 inrii",iJullli,m . .. I thi"k the .rti.t e.n do .nything hew.ntl to do. Tbi, i ,why I U!"ufd neverIIrxtplll commiuiorr. Irrdepe"ric"et i, molt import."t to mc. The work 0l.rt il" l(Team of freeriom.

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" ChriMo'. M:fUIIIof Ir'MISom" dw unw ..verin.. rnonlimpative dlat continuato be brand. .hed pollde..l1y at welt ..a ph.ilo-sophieally in all themodern traditions of Weatern thought. It reverberatedloudly in the intense conuoverty thai raSed for Ieveral yeus o\ler theproposed removal ofRic:hud Serra's comminioned sculpture Tilted Arcfrom itl 'ite at Pedenl Piau in downtownManhattan. Although con-ceived specifically for the site, the seventy-three-ton leaning CUrte ofwelded lICel, which Wat installed in 1981 by the lilovernmem'l Art in Ar-chitecture Program, pro\led 10 unpopular and obstructive to local officeworkers that they petitioned to have it removed. As one employee of theU.S, Department of Education scated at tbe time: "It has dampened ourspirill every day. I t hu turned into a hulk of rusty Iteeland dearly, at )eutto UI, it doesn't have any appeal. It might have artistic value but just nothere, .. and for those of u. at Ihe piau I would like 10 say. pleuedo u. afavor lnd cake it away,

Serra', response, 'wash in the .pirit of Was 10 .uethe government for thirty million dollar. bee,u.e i t had "deliberatelyinduced public hostility toward his work and tried to have it forciblyremoved. To remove the work, according to Sern,was to dellroy it. Serrasued for breach of contract and violation of his constitutional righu: tenmillion dollars for his los. of nle. andcommiuion, ten million for harm tohis artistic reputation, ,nd ten million in punitive damages for violation ofhi. righll. InJuly 1987, the Pederal.DinrictCourt ruled again$! Serra, andin March 1989, the sculpture was removed from the site.

What the Tilud Arc controversy fortes us to consider is whetherart that il centered on notions of pure freedom and radical autonomy, andsubsequently insened into the public sphere without regard for the rela-tionlhip it has to olher people, to the community, or an, considerationeJlcepc the pursuit of art, can contribute to thecommon good. Merely topose the question, however, indicate. that what hu most distinguishedaestheticphilosophy in che modern paradigm i, a desire for art thlt i.ab.olutely free of the preten.ions of doing the world any good. don'tknow what public it t ii, rcally, the sculpcor ChrisBurdenonce said. "1 . -. JUII make arl. Public arc il something else, I'm not sure it'. art, I think it's

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about a social agenda.Just at di.interested and -val.ue-free- science con-tains no inner rettnintwithin iu methodology that would limit what itfeel, entitled to do, value-free- aesthetici.m reveal, nothing about the,limiu an should respect, or the community it might serve.Modernittaestheucl, concerned with itself as the chiefsource ofvalue, did not in.pire creative participation; TIlher, it encouraged distanc-ing and depreciation of the Other. hs noorelational, noninteractive, .nonparticipatory orientation did not easily ICcommodate themort femi-nine value. of ca,..asld compu.ion, of .eeing and to need. Thenotion of power th.t is implied by assening one's individuality and havingone's way through being invulnerable leads, finally, to a deadening ofempathy. The model of the ani.t'll a lone genius strugglingagainst societydocs not allow us to focus on the bendicialand healing role of socialinteraction, nor does itlend it.elf to philosopher D.vid Mich.elLevin c.lls enlightened listening," listening that is orienled toward t he ,achievement of shared understandings. As Levin writes in The U,teningSelf, We need to think about'prlcticClof the self' that Nnde1'$fo.nd theessential intertWining of self and other, self and society, thatare .ware ofthe subtleeomplexitiuof this intertWining.

Certainly the sense of being isolated from the world and alone withone's creations is a common experience for Irtisu in our culture. the relultof modernism's historic failure to connect with the archetypal Other. AsNancy Pruer puu i t in her book Unruly Pr.crices: '"The monologic view isthe Romantic individualist view in which . . . solitary voice[il] crying outinto the night againlt an utterly undifferentiated background. . . . There isnoroomfor a reply that could qualify as a differentvoice. There i. noroom for interaction. The artist considers hi. isolation, his subjectivity,his individualism almoSt holy. States film director Ingmar Bergman.-Thus we finally gather together in one large pen, where we nand andbleat about our lonelinus without listening to each other Ind withoutrealizing that we are .motheringeach other to death." Art cannot be amonologue,- the French writerAlben Camu. oncewrote. Contrarytothe current presumption.if there is anY''P,ln who has no right to solitude,it is the anisl."

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,. of bring. me directly to the que.tion of whether ar t canbuild community.Are there viable alternative. to viewing the .elf in anindividuali.tlc manner1 And if so, howdoes this a((ect our notion of.uccess-lCanarti.ts and artinstitutlon.'redefine themselve. in less 'pec-tatorially orientedway. in order to reg.in the experience ofinterconnect-edneu-of .ubject and object interrwining-that was in dualistic

phi losophic. , const rueg. thewor ld at a spectacleto beobserved from afarby a disembodied eye1

.When California artist Jonathan'Borofsky and his collaborator,Gary Glassman, tflveled in 1985-86 to three different prisons in Californiainorderto maketheir video PrisOfltN, they did not go in themode of network reporten intending to observe It a distance Ind thende.cribethe condition. they found. Instead they went to listen to theprisonen inorderto try Ind undentand theirplight.They wanted tounderstand for themselve. what it mean; to be a pri.oner in thb fodety.to lose your freedom and live your lifelocked up in a cement box.Borofsky and Glauman invited pri.oners to talk about their live. andaboutwhathad gonewrongfor them. In the video .ome of the prisoners.hare poems they havewrinen or show. artwork. they have made. Con-versing with the video makers. they describe the oppressiveness of lifeinside. prisont where everything i. programmed and people never get totalk spontaneously about themselv" bec.use no one is interuted. Theknowledge that one is being heard, according to Glassman, trcates a senseof empowerment.In SUl.lnne Lacy'. Th, CrystAl Quilt, performed in Minneapolis onMother'a Day in 1987, a procession of 4io olderwomen. all dressed inblack,sat down together at table. in groupsof four, to di.euss witheachother their ICcomplishmentsand di.appointments, their hopes and fearsabout aging, in a ceremonially orchenflted artwork. A prerecorded soundtrack of the voice. of .eventy-twowomen at the t.ble. projected theirrenections loud e,!ough to be heard by the audience. We're no longerlitting home in the rocking cbair and knitting, like you think of grandmasinthe old day. We grandmas aren't doing that Inymore, comments oneof the women on the audiotape. '"I think 'a lot of.enility come. from the


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fact that nobody uk s you Slates another. uk s you tospeak. Pretty soon, you lose yourmemory. I suffer a lot from people notlistening 10

Empathic liSlening makes room for the Other and decentnli:.r.es theego-self. Giving each penon a voice is what builds community and makesart socially responsive. Interaction becomes the medium of expression, anempathic way ofseeing through another's eyes. NUkea subjective anthro-pologist,_ writes Lacy, M[the artin enters] the territory of the other, and . . .bC(:omes a conduit for {their] experience. The work becomes a metaphorfor relationship-which h u a healing power." When there is no quick fixfor some of our most pressingsocial problems, according to Lacy, theremay be only our ability to witness and feel the reality taking place aroundus. -This feelingnest is a service that artists offer to the world," she says.

Mter Mierle Laderman Ukeles became the unsalaried, self-appointedartist-in-residence at the New York City Sanitation Department in 1978,she went on rounds with sanitation workers and foremen from fifty-ninemunicipal districts, talking widi them and getting to know them. He r firstpitee of art w u a performance work called TOllch Sliniflltion, which wenton for cleven months. Duringthat time s.he visited the five boroughs ofNew York and shook hands with 8,500 workers. was an eight-hour-dayperformance she states. "I'd come in at roll call, then walk theirroutes with them. . . . I did a ritual in which 1 faced each person and shooktheir hand; and I said, 'Thank you for keeping New York City alive.' Thereal artwork is thehandshake iuelf. When I shake hands with a sanitationman . .. I present this idea and performance to them, and then, in how theyrespond, they finish the art." TOllch $lInitlltion w u Ukcles's first attempt10 communicate as an artist with the workers, to overcome barriers andopen way to understanding-to bringawareness and caringinto heractions by limning.

Art that is rooled in a "listening- self,that cullivales the intertwin-ing of self and Other, suggestS a flow-Ihrough experience which is notdelimited by the selfbut ektends into thecommunity through modes ofreciprocal empathy. Because this art isliuener-centcrcd rather than vision-oriented, it cannot be fully realized through the mode of self-expression; it

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can only come into its own through as open converution,inwhich one listens to and includes other voices. For many artists now, thismnnslening previously excluded groups.peak directly of their ownexperience. The audience becomes an active component of the work and ispart of the process. This listeningorientation challenges the dominalllocu[arcentric tradition, which.suggests that art i. an experience availableprimarily to the eye, and represents a rn l shift in paradigms. As DavidMichael Levin states in Modtrnity lind of Vision, maybe the time, the appropriate historical moment, to encourage and promotea shift in paradigms, a cultural drift that, to some eXlent, seems already tobe taking place. I am refernng, of course, 10 thedrift from seeing 10 listen-ing, and to the historical potential for a paradigm shift displacing visionand installing the very different influence of listening."

New models pUt forward by quantum physics, ecology, and systemstheory that define the world in terms of interacling processes and reladonalfields call for integrative modes of thinking that focus on the relationalnatureof reality rather than on discrete objects. Lacy states, "Focusing onaspects of interaction and relationship rather than on art objects calls for aradical rnrrangement in our expectations of what an IItistdocs. Itcallsfor a differentapproach to makingart and requires a different SCi of skills.To transcend the modernist, vision-centered paradigm and its specutorialepistemology, we need a reframingprocess that makes sense of this moreinteractive, intersubjective practicewhich is emerging. We cannot judgethe new art by the oldstandll.rds. "Informed by an interactive and receptivenormativity, listening generates a very different cp;lttmt and ontology-avery different metaphysics," write. Levin.

Modernism's confrontational orientalion resulted from deep habitsof thinking that set in opposition society and the individual as two con-trary and antagonistic tategories, neilher of which could expand or de-velop except at the expense of the other. The free and self-sufficient indi-vidual has long been the ideal of our culture, and artist. especially haveSeen themselves as quintessential free agenu, pursuing their own ends.But if modernism, and the art that emerged with it, developed around thenotion of a unique and separateself, the artgenerated by what I havecalled

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"connective aesthetics6 is very different. As I have argued in The Reen-chrllltment ofArl, radical relatedness has dramatic implications for ourunderstandingof art and conlTibutes to a new consciousness of how theself is to be defined and experienced. For one thing, the boundary betweenself and Other i, nuid ralher than fixed: theOthtr i. included wilhin Iheboundary of selfhood. We are talking about a more intersubjeClive versionof the self that is attuned to the ecological, and inter.lctivecharacter of reality, "Myself now includes the rainforest,6 writes Austra-lian deep ecologist John Seed, "I t includes clean air and water."

The mode of dillanced, objective knowing, removed from moral orsocial responsibility, hn been the animating motif of both science and artin the modern world. Objectivity slTips away emotion, wanu only thefacu, and is detached from feeling, Objectivity serves as a distancing de-vice, presuming aworld that stands before us to be .een,surveyed, andmanipulated, How, then, can we shift our usual way of thinking about artso that it becomes more compassionate? How do we achieve the "worldview of attachment"-atlachment to and continuity with the world-thatarchetypal psychologist Jame. Hillman talks about1 To see our intcrdepen-dence and interconnectedness is the feminine perspective thal has beenmining not only in our scientific thinking and policy making but in ouraesthetic philosophy as well. Care and compusion do not belong to the(a1se "objectivism" of the disinterested gazei care and compassion are thetools of the soul, but they are often ridiculed by our society, which hasbeen weak in the empathic mode. Gary Zukav puts it well in The Sedt ofthe SaKI, when he .tates that there i. no place for spirituality, orthe concerns of the heart, within science,' politics, business, or academia.ZuklV doesn't mention an, but until recently there hu bun no particularreceptivity there either,

Not long ago, I had occasion to share a lecture podium with thecritic HiltOn Kramer, who proclaimed, with the force of a typhoon, thatart i. at its ben when it serves only itself and not some other purpose,Things that in his opinion have no relation to art are now being acceptedand legitimized as art when, according to Kramer, art is incapable of solv-ing any problems but aesthetic ones. I would aTKue that much of the work

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included in this book contradicts, absolutely, these comments. However,there is no denying that the art world subtly disapproves of artists whochoose interaction as their medium, rather than the disembodied eye, JustIS crealivity in the Western world has been based on an understanding ofthe self as autonomous and .eparatt, the hegemony of the eye is veryItrong in our cullure.We arc ob.essed with the gaze. At this point, 10challenge the vision-centered paradigm by.undermining the presumedspectatorial distance of the audience, or by empowering others and makingthem aware of their own creuivity, is to ris.k the complaint that one isproducing not an but social work. Personally, I have never heard of a.ocial workerwho wu interested in shaking hands with 8,SOO sanitationworkers, or who tried to orchestratea public conversation among fourhundred olderwomen about aging. Social workers proceed quite differ-ently from artists in what they do.

To all these objections, I can only say that comparing models of Iheself based on isolation and on connectedness has given me adifferent senseof an than I had before and has changed my ideas about what is important,My conclusion is Ihat our culture's romance with individualism is nolonger adequate, My own work and thinking have led me 10 a fieldlikeconception of the self that includes more of the environment-a selfhoodIhat releases us intoa .ense ofour radical relatedness. It stems that inmany spheres we have finally come up against the limits of aworldviewbased only on individualism, In the field of psychotherapy, to give jUst oneexample, James Hillman, in his book We've H.d II Hundred Yellrs ofPsychotherdpy-And the World's Getting Worse, casligatCi therapy forencouraging us to disengage from the wor!d. He maintains that therapyincreases our preoccupation with individual fulfillment and personalgrowth at the expense of any concern forcommunily or the communalgood. Many hackles have been raised in the therapeutic community byHillman'sassertion that therapy has become a seU-improvement philoso-phy which turns us inward, a....ay from the world and its problems, Psy-chotherapy is only working on the -inside6soul, according to Hillman,while outside, the buildings, the schools, the streets, are lick-the sicknessis out there. The patienl in need of healing is theworld.


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Conneclive aesthetic. 'lrikel at the root of this alienation by dis-solving the mechanical division between telf and world that has prevailedduring the modern epoch. World healing begins with the individual whowelcomes the Othcr. In Ukeles'. work, for insunce, empathy and healingare Ihe parameters, the test of whether the work i s, in fact, being carriedout paradigm:uically.The open hand, extended to each worker, evokesqualities of generosity and care. We neea to cultivate the compassionale,relalional self as thoroughly as we have cuhivatea, in long years of abstractthinking, Ihe mind geared to scientific and aesthetic neutrality. As morepeople acknowledge the need for new philosophical framework, we arelearning to go beyond our culture of separation-the gender, class, andracial hierarchies of an elite Weltern tradilion that has evolved through aprocess of exclusion and negation.

With its focus on radical individualism and its mandate of keeping artseparate from life,modern aesthetics circumscribed the role of the audienceto that of adetachedspectator-observer. Suchart can neverbuild commu-nity. For thiswe interactive and dialogical practices that draw othersinto the process and challenge the notion, in thewords ofGary Snyder, that

some people are 'ulenled' and they becomeItlists and live in SanFrancisco working in open andballet and the ren of us should be satisfiedwith watching televi.ion. Connective aesthetic. seesthat human nature isdeeply embedded in Iheworld. It makes art intoa model for connectednessand healing byopeningup beingto its full dimensionality-not just the

Social cOntext becomes acontinuum for interaclion,for aprocess of relating and weaving together,cruting a flow inwhich there isno speclatorial distance, no antagonistic imperative, but rather the reciproc-ity we find at play in an ecosy.tem.Wilhin alinener-centered paradigm, theold specializationsof atlist and audience, creative and uncreative, profes-sional and unprofeuional-disti!tCtlons between who is and who is notanartist-begin to blur.

To follow this pach, I would argue, is morethan justa manerofpersonal lute; it represents the opening of an experimental space in which10 institute and practice a new it t that is more in tune with Ihe many inter-

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active and ecological models emergingin our culture. I we will leeover Ihe ncxt few decades more art that is enentially locial and purposeful,and that rejects the modernist myths of autonomy and neutrality.Thisbook bean witness to the increasing number of anists who are rejectingIhe product orientation of consumerculture and finding ever more com-pellingways of weaving environmental and social responsibility directlyinto their work. In this complex and worthy endeavor, I sincerely wishthem well.

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H., MoJ ....I".. F.iJdfN L"""".., n .........4 lI.d", I' l l .____. Jl".t ' . . . .'.f A.'. N... y",k .nell"""....'" , . . . . . . ...1 It.d",,,, ,n l .Hln"'",J dM;,h ..1V'.'.fI. 11'0'0.11 .1. /10 .1.. .1 r.", 'f,.,t,..l " ' f7 -A .J , l . em,.,.....". N y .., 110,,.,Colli.... lnJ.t.. D.. id "'i


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C " A . . . . ,

'0 "AOCH '0 ' '" ' GOOO ANO Mm "M"no) E",I/. C, W "" j.. .To search for the good and make itmatter: this is the real challenge for theartist. Not simply to lransform ideas or revelations into matter, bu t tomake those revelations actually matter. This quesl is measured as much inthe truths we IIIcmpt to cnncsh a s in the clay we might aesthetically de-

work. not only inspire the viewer but give evidenceof the artist's own struggle 10 achieve higher recognition of what it meansto be truly human. The works arc.testamentS to the artis!'s effon to con-vert a particular vision of truth into his or her own marrow.

As I meditated on the theme of th,is book, I found myself thinkingabout territories. both public and private..:.:aboulpoliticalll1rf and defini-live lines, those that exclude and those that include. 1 began to reflect onthe tarth and all the redrawn borders thatwe who are involved in publicart must bring to the map if there are to be positive new directions for theworld's cultures. I found n'yself contemplating, as any anist might, thecorresponding territor y-the terrain of the soul, that sacred space withinthe self that must be acknowledged and tended, that dream space whereEden and womb are ritualistically related, where conception is possible,where we can receive in order to give again.

The dream space of the soul is the real terrain that we should map.If not, then nothing else that we are fighting for or against has any possi-bility of transformatiol): not the militarism thatwe resist, not the oppres-sion we deplore, not the toxic waste dumping on the land of the poor, notthe racism or the sexism that we expose. None of these concerns can betaken on unless they are examined, acknowledged, and confronted withinthe inner territory of the seU, the earth that, in fact, we are.

The soul is theseedbed of our actions. Everything that we concep-tualize, crute, or deuroy has its In:ginnings there. What we see cultivatedand thriving in the outer terrain is a of our inner creative ordestructive impulses.There is connected'ness betweenwhat we sce in the..

TO I I U t " ' 0 1 . . . , G OOD A"D "HI" "AT" .

world and whowe are, between whowe are and what we do. The artisttends the private garden of the soul and gives evidenceof this process pub-licly through the art that, in turn, inspires others to tend their owngardens.

The often-asked question as to liowone moves from being anist toactivist I find interesting, because I do nOt make the separation in my ownmind. For me, the twO roles exist as a single entity: the artist if the activiSt.Indeed, within the African tradition, the anist's work has a function junlike everything ehe in the world. As the mask is for feuivals, and theground-drawing for marking a ucred space, and the dance for healing anddrawing energies to oneself, so, too, the ritu'!s that'we perform and themonuments that we make have a function: the transformalion of self andcommunity, which is the extended self. Art is a necessity, II the poct AudreLorde says, not a luxury. The assumption that art could be somethingseparate from the life that sustains us, that art is indeed a luxury, is as falsea theory as the notion that the OUter terrain can undergo transformationwithout affecting the soul. And yet, many believe that the places outside,in the world, are the true sites of change. Notions of separation and other-ness are ingrained in Western thought, and it is this very way of thinkingthat has wreaked havoc on the cultures of the world.

While no .ingle culture has a copyright on truth, perhaps embn.cingan African view of the intrinsic connectedness of all things would help usto recan the mother from whom we have'all come. And in rememberingher, perhaps we can begin more profoundly to ounelves.This charge of remembering the mother is important because without itour cultural and crosscuhuralamnesia is never lifted; our common hu-manity is never fully acknowledged.We never knowwhowe are, andhaving no true identity,we end up like a person who suffera amnesia,fearing every face that is not the exact replication ofour own. And some-times in our desperation,we even fear our own face. We never develop asense of continuity or wholeness among people. The cultures Ihat remem-ber this connectedness are recalling the crucial element thai has been partofour survival since our beginning.

The artists who remember our'common humanity and instigaterecognition of OU f true nature are those like Anna Halprin, who wouldhave people Iivin.withAIDS Ind thON' who ar . nor afl1icll cin:lc die

..


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C"".",'II

urlh in a dance in an attempt to break down the barriers of fear. They arethose like Suzanne Lacy, who would produce a'cry.tal quilt of women'whose choreographed laying on of hands helped change the patterns oftheir Ijvu and make visible the bonding and power among them. They areIhose like Mel Chin, whowould move us into the mystery of metaphor byworking with .cientists to develop hybrid plantl that ablorb poisons fromthe earth into leaves which can be plucked from our children's surround-ings. They are those like the husband and wife team Newton and HelenMayer Harrison, who have collaborated for over twenty years, and Mierle

Ukeles, artist-in-residence of the New York City SanitationDepartment, and Sheila Levrant de Breueville, and PeterJemison, andmany more who recognil.e the illusion of the miracle oftion, and the beautyof making truth mauer.

None of this is to suggest that the aesthetic quality of any workneed ever be sacrificed. 1 say this knowing that it is a critical issue of publicart proiectl involving community participantswho Ife not necessarilyartim. Somehow, it is feared, the partieipanll' aesthetics will bring downthe quality of the work. But since the aen.hetic is determined by the artist,perhaps this is not the ultimate fear of thoie 'who are leery of the new,more collaboradve public art. Perhaps the greater fear is that elitism will bedestroyed, that the function of art will once again be recognized, thatfrecdom of exprcssion will carry the impulse and stark beauty ofour firstbreath, and that our own relevance as human beings will come to be seenin the meaning ofour acts. If this is what is.o furful, then we must con-tinue to make such art and 10 redefine the way. in which the making isitself a celebrated process.

In deciphering themystery of thisprocess, the blues form, or for-mula, from African American culture can provide insight. As ethno-musi-cologists tell us, the blues has three lines: the first line is the call, Ihe second isthe response, the third is the release. The second line might be the sameas the first butwith some slightvariation, and the last is adeparture. The lastline rhymes with the firstand, essentially, set. you free. Thewhole notion istranscendence, as exemplified in this stanza Icomposed for illumation:

..

." ." . . . . . """" >0 0 . . . . . " . . . . . . .

WtderWII"'1oUllin't,oblu"c '.t ."I '"1, WilIerWilIer10U IIin't so blUtI done ch,de,d for m1s,lflind ther,', ..,lty in 'ON.

'. Thil form--call,.answer, and a metaphor for art iuelfand the potenlia! that it hold . ca.lI is iry,cited by the experiences wehavt wit/1 the world, by the condition. and predicament. withinour terrain thai arouseour interest or eon.ciou.ness. Next comes theresponse, the artist's attempt to name, recognize, and insti-gate change through his or her creative .expression. But the artist's crealionis not the,end of the prt,lcess, as it.is often thought to be. Theprocess con-tinues u member. of Ihe community experlence the release, the inspirationthat allows them to enflesh the meuage and begin activating change intheir own terrain,.

This basic huma,n-to-hu.man interaction signals the symbiotic rela-tion.hip among human beings. When we understand this, we can go on tobetter appreciate Ihe brealhdynamic between ourselves and the trees. Wecan our relationship to oceans and ozones and other zoneswithin the universe.

The blue. form is not about being down and OUt. The blues calls 10and Ifltnsform. Ihe hollerer, and continues on to transform the community.It makes those tingerswilling to "work the .ound" inlo new and knowingpeople who go about the business of making the truth matter. Bessie Smithcould nOt leave halfway through a concert.We, as the communal singer,cannot afford to do it eilher. The P0l;t Maya Angelou reminds us that ourdepth of erperiencc is in direct proportion to the dedication of our artistS.Indeed, we artim have to sing the second line in such away as 10 .ignal thepossibility for variation in the song. We have to create relevant art, art thatinvites its audience into the creative process and empowers them. We mustsing in a way as to promise our lis,tener. who would become singersthat the third line is a breakthrough, proclaiming without a doubt Ihat "Idone checked for myself and there's a sky in you.

It 'eems to me that in order for this lransformation 10 happen, weartists must prepare ourselves to respond crealively and appropriately 10

"

.


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IC''''will M,;joXll

the calls in our environment. This is no small chore, especially for those ofus in Ihe public realm, who find ourselves taking on challenging, oftenemotionally draining issuu; writing and rewriting proposals to obtainfundingfor projects; meeting for what seems like an entire lifetime withartistic collaborators; addressing community participanlS and relentlesslyrallying their interest in the projeCti gelling no funding at all, or justenough 10 prescnt only hdf of the envisioned project; meeting agaIn withcollaborators about the meeting on the meeting; cncounlcring those critic.who thc:msc1vcs haye not decided 10 be imaginative in their own work;and, lu t but nOf IUSI, never finishing because we arc still actively linening10 Ihe communilY's response and remaining sensitive to Ihe sounds andfeelings in both Ihe innerand oUler life.

To be an artin amid all these currenlS is demanding. How is thearliSl to Devclopmenl of one's craft and keen awareness of one'ssurroundings are imporlant but arc hardly enough. To be able to maketruly visionary an , we artius must have in our lives the crucial element


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......

lOOKING "1I.0UNO: )WMUE WE "II.E. W M U l WE COULO IU I.ucy R. Lipp.rd

LOOKING "1 I. 0UNO

I've spenta lot of my life looking, but len of it looking around. Art hinoryand the art world makeprogress,M focusing on an invented vanishingpoint,losing sight of the eydic, panonmic vie...... And of course iI's noteasy to be visionary in the smog. Meanwhile, Huel Henderson'sglobally, act locally has becomea lruism-an overused idea importantenough to remain true, The notion of thelocal, the locale. thelocation. thelocality, thepllfce in an. however. has notcaughton in the mainnreambecause in order to attract sufficient buyers in thecurren! system of distri-bution, art must be relatively generalized,detachable from politicsand pain.

The social amnesia and an!ihistor;cal attitudes that characterize oursociety at large affect the art world as well. increasingly a ppearsto be all that there is, .. . There i . no .ense of progress which can providemeaning or depth and asenseof But, perhaps because we areat a retrospective moment in hillory-nearing theend of a millennium andiu.t past the five hundredth anniversary of themo n heralded point ofcolonialism-many of us are looking back to find solid ground from whichto leap forward. into the shifting future. It seems significant that what thehinorian Lawrencc Grossbergcall. the comentones of historical

can also be called the very cornerstones of the art to ....hich thisbook is devoted: of difference, undemanding of context.and ability to make critical comparative judgmenu 00 the basisof emp:uhyand

Ecological crisis is obviously responsible for thecurrent preoccupa-tion with pbce and cOntext, as il an ongoing noualgia for lost connections.The Greek rOOt of thc w ord means h omc, and it's a hard placeto find these days. Precisely beeau.e so many people arc nOt at home in theworld, the planet is being rendered an impossible home for many. Uecause

'"

'''CO.'N" .... .. _N", -, '" -, '- .. .. ;;;W

we have 1011 our own places in the world. we have10lt respect for thecanh, and treat it badly. Lacking a sense of microcosmic community, wefail to protect our macrocosmie global home. Can an interactive, process-based art bring people "closer to home" in a soeiClY characterized by whatGeorg Lukacs called "transcendental home1essness"?

Not since the regional art of the Ihirties have so many people lookedrecorded whatlhey see or would like to see in their own environ-

menu, and called it arl. Some have gone beyond the reneclive function ofconventional art forms and the reactive function of much aClivist art.Those who have been at it for a long timearc represented individually inthis book. BUI they also havc heirs and colleagues among younger artists,writers. and activists who regard Ihe relationship between people andpeople unlike them, between people and place. between people, place.flora. fauna, and now. necessarily. even atmosphere, as a way ofunder-standinghislory and the fmure.

The growingmulticultural (and cross-cultural. intercuhural)contributions of the lUI decade haveopened up fresh ways of undemand-ing the incredibly enmplex politics of nature. Culture aud the conecpt ofplace are in fact insepllrable. yet people(and ideologies) are often Jeft outof art about land and landscape. As Kenneth Helphand has observed.landscapes (which I would dehne as place at a d inance) legaciesand and can create " an in fo rmed landscape c itizenry.-}

National, global. collective narratives arc especially accessiblethrough one's family history-by asking simple quenions ahout why wemoved from one block or city or Slate or country to another, gained or Ionjobs. married or didn't marry whom we did, kept track ofor lostlrack ofcertain relatives. A starting point. for example: simple research about theplace where you live or were raised. Who lived Ihere before? What changeshave been made? have you made? When was the house built? What do thedeeds in Ihe county records have to uy about il and the land it sunds on?I-Iow docs it hi into thehistory of the Has ill monetary value appre-Ciated or Why? When did your family move Fromwhere1 Why? What Native peoples hm inhabited it1 Docs your familyhave a history in the area, or in any area? 00 rclativulive nearby? What is

'"


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LkC)' H.. L''''MiI

different now from when you were Why? How does the illleriorof your house relate to the exterior? How does ill style and decorationreflect your family's cuhural background, the places from which yourpeople came? Is there a garage? a lawn? a garden? Is the flora local orimported Is there water to sunain it? Do any animals live there? And ona broaderscope. are you satisfied with the present? If not.are you nostal-gic for the past or longing for the And so forth.

Questions like these ean set off a chain of personal and cuhuralreminiscences and ramifications, ineludinlliines of thought about inter-linking histories, the unacknowledged American class system, racial,I;cnder, and cuhural divisions and common grounds, land usc/abuse, geog-raphy, environment, town planning, and the experience of nature that hasmade a to i t s o mythical. When this kind o f r esearch int o socialbelonging is incorpor.lled into inleractive or participatory art forms, col-lective views of place can be arrived at. It provides ways to understandhow human nccupallls arealso part of theenvironment rather than merelyinvaders (but that 100). According to Wendelll3erry, the most consistentlyinspirinll writer nn American place, Nl'he concept of country, Ilomeland,dwelling place becomes simplified as 'the environmenl'-that is, whatsurrounds us. Once we see our place, our part of the world, as JHffOHndingus, we have already made a profound division between il and ourselves.N'

Real immersion is dependent on a familiarity with place and itshistory thaI is rare today.One way to undemand ....here we have landed is10 identify the economic and historical forces that brought us where wearc-alone or accompanied. (Culture, said one contemporary ;lrtist, is nOIwhere we corne (romi it's where we're coming from.) As we look at our-selves critically, in social conlextS, as inhabitants, users, onlookers. tourists,we can scrulini:r.e our own participatory roles in the natural processes thatarc forn1il11: our fUlures. Similarly, Ihe study o( place offers access to expe-rience of the land itself (an

Jeff Kelley has distinguished the notion of place from that of site,made popular in the late sixties by Ihe term sculpture:" Asile rcprescnts the constituent physical propertics of a place . . . whilc

' 0 0 " , .. (1 .-ou..o, w, ... w, eOUlO ..places are Ihe reservoirs of h uman Whilc p lace and home arcnot synonymous, a place musl havesomething of Ihe home in il. In thesechilHng times, the concept of place has a warm feeling to it. The implica.tion is that ifwe know our place we know somclhing about iti only i( we

it in the historical :tnd expericntial sense do we truly belong there.But (ew o( us in COntemporary North American sociely know our place.(When I asked twenty universilY studenu to name "their place, most hadnone; the ClCceptions were 1Ilol0 Navajo women, raised traditionally, and aman whose (amily had been on a southern Illinois (arm for generations.)And if we can locate ourselves, we not necessarily examined our placein. or our actual relationship to, that place. Some o( us have adoplcd placesthat arc not really ours except psychologically.We have redefincd place asa fclt but invisible domain,

[n contrast 10 the holistic, earth-centered indigenous peoples of thishemisphere (who, over Ihousandsof years, had also made ch:tnges in thcland), thc invading Europcans saw the natural world M an objectof plun.der to be conquered, cxploited, and commodificd. They imported denial,still a prevalent disease among their descendants. The causes of thc ex.hauSled resources, thescarcity of wood and arable land in an "old worldwere nevcr acknowledged; old habits were silnply reasserted in theworld,NAlthough a sense of collective10llsprcad through this country atthe end of the nineteenth CCntury, when mon of the arable land hadparceled out, most people in tile United Stales today nill want to believethat our resourcC$-watcr, topsoil, forests, fuels, oxygen-are infinite. Notunrelated is the scant attcntion paid to tile ways rural and urban spaces arcstructured and how thcy affect our national psychology. (HistorinnJohnStilgoe uy s that in colonial New England, lo ....ns planned in odd shapeswere seen as disordcrly and were "more likely to harbor civil and ecclesias-tical unrest.")'

Today, according to Rosalyn Deutsch, space as a reflection of powerrcluions (produced by social relations) on Ihe political agenda as itnever has been before. is true for artists who have beenlandfills, shopping malls. parks, and other social Contcxts for many ycarsnow. Yet the ovenlllOnc is nOI exuberant. I've been struck by (hrce receO!


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/( /"1'"",,1

'1.1ming First , the postmodernist impulse (now least ade-old, supremely in its own right) has spawned

of el


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I.Hey R. 1.,pp,,,J

!'lut environments also places, formed differently, morelikely 10 spawn Ihe multiple selves cu e cross-cultural communica-tioru, in fact arc the result of cross-cullUrAI communicAtion.Those ofus living in any bi" city are c onfronted by A vaSl mirror whenevcrwe step oludoors . [t us and thosc who, like us, live on Ihis c om-mon I;round; ou r appearam;;cs and livcs often differ, but we can'I look intothe Illirror without seeing them 100. The reciprocal nature of culturalcommunicAtion is the nailJames Baldwin hit on the heAd when he Solid,Kif I .lm nOI who YOlllhought 1 then you arc nm who you thoughtyou were either.-"

The I. Works prep:tre(! for conventional indoor elChibitioll (innartations,pholographs, eoncepllIal and projeCt proposals) that refer' 10 local

history, or envirOllmelllal issues. Eumples arcIhight and Nancy Gonehar 's Chicf/go Stories, NeWlon and IlelenMayer Harrison's prOflosed Boulder Creek Project, and RichardMisrach's Bravo ]0 : Thr Bombing o/tht AI/ftrj(f/n Well.

2. TrAditionAl omdoor public art (not "plunk Ht," IYhich has simply becnenlarged and dropped on the sitc) that draws attention to the speeif1echaractel'isties or funeliolls of the places where it intervenes, either inpredieuble locat ions such parks, bank pb1.u, muscum I:M'dens, andcollege campusl'S (slleh U Andrcw Leiccner's mining inFrostburg, M:tryland; Athena Tacha's Memory P/II/' in


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""e')' N.

BubarA Jo Revelle's People's History of ColOY


16/23

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18/23

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process of recognizing both limitatiOns and possibilities. We need to collabonte with s n u ll a n d l u g e social, specialized groups of peoplealready informed on and immersed in the issues. And we nted to teachthem III welcome artists, to understand how art un concrelize and envisilln their I:oals. AI the samt time wt nccd to colbborale wilh those whose

and nltybe foregrounds arc unfamiliar to us, rejtcling theinsidious lIotions of "diversity thal simply neutraliz.e difference. Empathyand exchanj\e arc key wonls. Even for interactive an workers who haveall the right ideas, elitism is a hard habit 10 kick. Nothing that excludes theplaces of people of color, women, lesbians, gays, or working people can becalled universal, or IIl:aling.To find the wholc we must knowand respect aHtlle

So we need to weave a relationship and rel:iprocal theory of multiplicity abom who we are, what is ou r place, and how ou r culture affects{Hlr environlllcnt. We nccd to know alot 1110re about how ou r work affectsami the people expose


19/23

uo

,


20/23

J'''''t/' t,: l I"u

like Ronald Rugan) soothed U5 inlO believing the war was abloodless, complllcri7.cd science demonstration of gigamic proportions.Youug American men with adroit rcflues trained by a video-gamc ,ullUTedemonstrated our superiority as a nation over Salldam Hussein throughvideo-screen 51rau:g;c air striku.

From the triumphant bron7.t general on public'sview of whidl is the underside of galloping hooves-to lIS more conlem-porny corporate versions, we find cumplcs of public an in the service ofdOlll;nancc. By their daily presence in Ollr lives. theseutworks intend topersuade liS of the justice of the aclS they represent. The power of thecorporate sponsor is embodied in the sculpture standing in fronl of thetnwering office building. These grand works, like their military predeces

in the parks, inspire a sense of awe hy their the importanceof the artist. Here, public art is unashamed in its intention 10 mediatebetween the public and the developer. In a "things go down bettcr withpublic art" menulity, the biller pills of development are delivered to thepublic. While percent-for-art bills have heulded developers' creation ofamen;l.ulC public phces as a positive side effecI of "growth,M every inch ofurban space is swallowcd by sk yscrapers and priYlli7.ed imo the socalledpublic sp;l.ce of shopping malls and corporate plaus. These developmentsprelletermine the public, selectingOUI the hamden. vendors, ;l.doleseents,urban poor. ;l.ml people of color. Planters. benches. and other Mpublicamenities" arc suspect as potential huards or public loitering places. Re-cent attemptS in Los Angeles to pass laws to StOp or severely resu'!cl push-


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10 fund public murals by ethnic artisu who work wilhin Los Angeles'sdiverse Chinese, African American, Korean, Thai, Chicano, and CentralAmerican neighborhoo


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jKJirh f:

strC1:u. The subject maller is as rdevant now,sixty yurs later, a s it wasthen. Murals depicting the domination of 1nd resistance by Los Angeb'sL1tinos or other populations of color provoke thesame official resinanee15 they did in 19]]. Despite these muuls h1ve been the onlyintCTvenlions in public Ipacelthat articuhtl: the presence of ethnicity.Architecturc and city planninghave done liule to accommodlle communi-ties of color in our city.

As competition for public space h1s grown, public art policies havehecome calcified and increasingly bureaucr;l!ic. An that is sanctioned haslustlhe political bite of the seventies murals. Nevertheless, a rich legacy ofIlluuls hu been produced since Amrriea Tropiea/wa.s pa.inled on OlveraSucct by the maenro. Thousands of public lnurals in phceswhere peoplelive :md wOIk have become tangible public monuments to the sharedexperience of communities of color. Chicano munls have provided thelcadership and thl: form for other communities to asSUt their presenceandanicuble their issues. Today, works appearthat speak of children caughtin lhe cross fire of gang warfare in the barrios ofSylmu, the hidden prob-lcm of AIDS in the South-Central African Amerie1n community, and thestruggles of immiRration and assimilation in the Korean community. Thescmural! have become monumellt'lhat serve as a community's memory.

The generations who grew up in neighborhoods where the land-sca.pe was doned by the mural movement have been influenced by theseworks. With few avenues open to lfaining.a.OlI art production, ethnicteenagers have crealed thegraffiti art that has become another method ofresisting privati7.Cd public space. As the fim visual ut form entirely devel-oped by youth culture, it has become the focus of increasingly severercprinls by .1lIhoritieswho spend fifly-two million dollan in theCounty of Los Angeles to abate what they refer to as the Mskin cancer ofsociety.M It is no accident that Ihe proliferation of graffiti is concurrentwith the reduction of all youlh recreation and aru programs in the schools.

Working with communities in producing public artworks hal putme into COntut with many of the'e youths. On one occasion, I was calledto a l ocal high school after convinced one of the young Great Wallproduction tum members that he should retUrn to school. The urgent

WooOIf MOHIIK!N' woo. . . . OIlU'C nl 'K. K.....C!.. . U.. D .OC""

message from the boy in the principal's office nid, MI need you to comehere right away because I'm going to get thrown outof school again.-My du l with the boy, formulated overa long mentorship, W1S that hewould not quit school again without talking to me fint. I arrived to findthe principal lOwering over the young cho/o, who holding his hu d ina defiant manner I had seenover and over in my work with the gangs.This Stance, r elniniscent of a unccremoniously Mholdingyour mug,M is about maintaining dignity in adverse circumstances. Theprincipal was completely frustrated. MYou've wrinen on the Ichool', w111sand you simply do not have respect for other people's property. Tell me,would you do this in your own housd- I couldn't help but smile at hisadmonition, despite the seriousness of thesituation.This boy was animportant graffiti artist in his community. I had visited his house and seenthe walls of his room, where every inch was covered wilh his intricatewritings. Two diHerent notions of beauty and order were operaling, aswell as a dispute about ownership of the school. The boy's opinion wasthat he had aesthetically improvcd the property, not dcstroyed it.

At this time the conditions of our communitiesare worse than thosethat prC1:ipimcd the civil righu activism of the sixtics and seventies. Fifty-twO percent of all Afric1n American children and forty-twO percent of allLatino children are living in poverty. Dropout rates exceed high schoolgraduation rates in these communities. What, then, is the role of a sociallyrcsJlolllible public utili? As the wealthy and poor arc increasingly polar-ized in our society, faee-to-hcc urban confrontalionsoccur, often withcatastrophic consequences, Clin public art avoid coming down on the sideof wealth and dominance in that confrontation? How can we as artisunoid becoming accomplicCl to If we chose nOt to look attriumphs over nations and neighborhoods 11 victories and advancemenu,what monuments could we build? How can we crute a public memoryfor a many-cultured society? Whose story shall we tell?

Of grutest interelt to me is the invention of systems of voicegivingMfor those left without public venues in which 10 speak. Soci11lyresponsible artists from marginalized communities have a puticul.r rc-sponsibility to uticulate Iheconditions of their peopleand 10 provide

i . .. - -

catalysu for cllangc. since perceptions of us as individuals are tied to the


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conditions of our communities in a racially unsophisticated society.Wecannot escape that responsibility even when we choose to try; we are madeolthe and dust of our anceSlors in a continuing history. Being acatalyst for change will change us lisa.

We can evaluate ourselves by the processes with which wechooseto make an . not simply by the lr t objects we crute. Is the artwork theruult of a privlte act in a public Focusing o n t he object devoid ofthe creuive process used to achieve it has bankrupted Eurocentric mod-ernist and postmodernin traditions. Art processes. jun as art objects, maybe culturally specific. and with no single aesthetic. a diversesociety willgenerate very different forms of public HI .

Who is the public now that it has changed color? How do people ofvarious ethnic and class groups use public space? What ideas do wewantto place in public memory? Where does art begin and end?Artins have theunique ability to transcend designated spheres of activity.What representssomethiJlg deeper and more hopeful about the future of our ethnically andclass-divided cities arc collaborations that move well beyond the artist andarchitect to the artist and the historian. scientist. environmentalist. or socialservice provider. Such collaborations are mandated by the seriousness ofthe tasks at hand. They bring a range of people into conversations abouttheir visions for their neighborhoods or their nations. Finding a place forthose ideas in monuments that are constructed of the soil and spirit of thepeople is the most challenging task for public artists in this time.

NOTES

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01.Mapping Chapters 3,4,6,7

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Transcript of 01.Mapping Chapters 3,4,6,7