44 Navigating places a-n Magazine May 2004

Artworks that are made in the publicrealm can take a long time to be realiseddue to lengthy consultation, planningapplications, complicated constructionand contracting procedures. Once thework has been completed there may bepress releases, postcards and glossybrochures proclaiming the unveiling ofa public artwork. However, the artists,and their work, have often moved on toanother project. Seeing these works canbe like viewing a recently discovered starin the sky. Although new to us theviewer, we are actually seeing it lightyears after its birth. It’s old news. There-fore, in order to get an up-to-date idea ofwhat artists are doing ‘now’in the publicrealm, and what is innovatory, we haveto look at work that is in progress orabout to be made. Alternatively, we canlook at work made in more of a guerrilla,or interventionist manner – projects thatby-pass bureaucratic negotiations.

One such work is JonathanRabagliati’s Notes to Myself [Footnotes tothe City]. This is a series of four pave-ment pieces that Rabagliati has made

around London. If you head up CorkStreet you may chance upon the word‘hope’ drilled into the pavement. Halfway along Brick Lane you might haveencountered the word ‘seek’1. If you walkup Wharf Road past the drive-thruMcDonalds, you might find ‘love’. Youcould run over ‘pray’ whilst trying tocatch the Number 19 bus at BatterseaBridge Road.

These four letter words, which offermore uplifting messages to London’spublic than other graffiti texts, are notchance appearances; the artist choseeach site carefully. Rabagliati has usedthe language of the street – the knobblypaving slabs that signal a pedestriancrossing – to develop a dot matrix fontspecifically for this piece. This workinvolves a carefully orchestrated process.Rabagliati removes the original pave-ment stone and replaces it with a tempo-rary one. In the workshop, he drills eachletter into the slab, and then returns tothe street to relay it in its original posi-tion. The process involves meticulousattention to detail but is, at the same

time, liberating for the artist. Rather thanasking permission to make these publicworks, Rabagliati just goes ahead anddoes it. He dons the clothes of the street-worker, luminous jacket and boots, inorder “to become part of the street”. Henotes, “no-one questions me: a police-man passes by; a street cleaner sweepspast.”

Whilst Footnotes sides-steps tradi-tional publicly sited work procedures2, itrefers to the well-used public commis-sion materials of etched words and pat-terns in pavement surfaces. In theWhitefriars city centre area of Canter-bury, artist Janet Hodgson is also usingpavement materials as part of a currentcommission. This work, soon to beunveiled, physically maps out archaeo-logical drawings of cesspits found on theredevelopment site. The delicate linesetched in pristine York stone reveal arich archaeological history underneaththe pedestrians’ feet. The drawing itselfis only a small part of the work, whichhas been as much about the process ofcollaboration and discovery between the

A very public affairFor the final article in this series Jane Watt asks artists and commissionersabout their involvement in current innovative projects.

Facing page:Jonathan Rabagliati,Notes to Myself[Footnotes to the City].

Left:Grennan and Sperandio,Canterbury Windows,2002. Photo: GarrardMartinA temporary series ofpainted shop windowsdepicting images ofpeople who use thestreets where the shopsare located in Canterburycity centre.

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46 Navigating places a-n Magazine May 2004

artist, archaeologists, architects, plannersand members of the public. In contrastto Rabagliati’s Footnotes, Hodgson’s workhas taken three years of lengthy discus-sion in order to be realised. However,this largely positive process has seen thegradual development of a strong workingpartnership and exchange of ideasbetween Hodgson, the architect Cather-ine Hennessey and the CanterburyArchaeology Trust (CAT). The channelsof communication and mutual respectbetween these professionals haveextended to the commissioning agentsSWPA and the client Land Securities.

The project adopted a ground-upapproach (both physically and metaphor-ically). Hodgson went on archaeologicaldigs of the site, gave public talks along-side the archaeologists and worked on aseries of temporary projects inspired bythe idea of the HG Wells film, TimeMachine. These more immediate workswere part of a larger temporary pro-gramme around the site and wider citycentre, which included work by SusanCollins, Grennan and Sperandio, MarionKalmus and Susan Shaw. SWPA seesthese works as an important part of theresearch and development of ideas, aswell as a means to build up a dialogue

between the artists, collaborators, clientand users of the space.

The mobilisation of dialogue throughtemporary artworks in public spaces hasbeen a practice adopted by the architectsShillam + Smith for several years. It hasinvolved artists in an innovatoryapproach to public consultation. Shillamsays, “working with artists helps us, andthe community, look at an environmentwith a different eye and understand thatplace more. If you live somewhere youoften become oblivious to the dreadfulthings that are there, as well as to thethings which are beautiful.” Shillamechoes the claims of many commission-ers and collaborators that the motivationfor employing an artist is to capitalise ontheir ability to take a different approachto an area, idea, or issue.

Last year, Shillam + Smith wasappointed to undertake a new consulta-tion and redevelopment proposal forNorth Fulham NDC (New Deal forCommunities) and the London Bor-ough of Hammersmith and Fulham. Amajor part of this scheme was the rede-velopment of Normand Park in northFulham. The team’s main concern wasto engage with the local communityabout what it wanted and needed in its

park. Shillam + Smith invited artist Rox-ane Permar to develop a public eventthat would stimulate debate3. Permar’sexperience and interest in talking to peo-ple meant that she soon built up a closeworking relationship with older mem-bers of the community, parents andteenagers. Her dialogue with themranged from conversations at groupmeetings to text messaging. The out-come of this interaction was Park Mat-ters, two public events in September andOctober 2003. In the first, four thou-sand pansies were laid out in a gridacross the park. People were asked totake away a plant, think about ideas forthe area, and come back to discuss themat the closing event two weeks later. Atthe second event Wishing Tree was alsocreated to allow an alternative public dis-play of aspirations for the site. Permarconsiders the works’ creation – bothconceptually and physically – to be trulycollaborative: the fruits of a sustaineddialogue.

Shillam points out that this type ofwork is like a performance. It tries topush the boundaries of what peopleexpect and know of their environment, aswell as concepts of what an artist does,and what a publicly sited work can be.

Above:Susan Collins, HolyMackerel, still fromvideo, 2001.A series of stereo (video)viewers embedded intothe building siteperimeter hoardings inCanterbury city centre.Filmed entirely at thelocation, by day the workshowed stereo videodocumentation of the siteitself whilst by night thedocumentation wasoccasionally interruptedby a strolling Yeti.

“the motivationfor employingan artist is tocapitalise ontheir ability totake adifferentapproach to anarea, idea, orissue”

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Both Permar and Shillam admit thatinnovatory work carries the potential riskof a very public failure. However, Shillamasserts: “you have to be brave!” At Nor-mand Park, experience, commitment todialogue, confidence in ideas and thecommunity’s wishes paid off.

Permar is currently working on aproject – Coal, Salt, Tin – that examinespost-industrial issues of regeneration inNewcastle, Leeds and Cornwall4. Theproject brief pushes many public artcommission buttons: it calls for artiststo work with the community, local sitesand social histories. However, the proj-ect departs from the well-trodden pathof public engagement and regenerationin three ways. Firstly it involves a groupof artists, sites, communities and regen-eration issues specific to areas that aregeographically disparate. Secondly, bytouring work in The Caravan Gallery, awider debate takes place between thesites. Finally, and most radically for apublic project, Permar’s contribution tothe project, her work Rosebud, will bemade in collaboration with the resi-dents of Newlyn and sited in an estab-lished public gallery, the Newlyn ArtGallery.

This last point is of particular interestif we examine the pairing of ‘public’alongside words such as ‘art’ or ‘project’.The somewhat contentious term ‘publicart’ has often been used (including bymyself) as a general term to distinguishartwork made in a non-art building orplace, from work made for – and viewedin – a gallery environment. However,Permar asserts: “I see the gallery as a

dynamic public arena for public engage-ment.” By adopting this attitude Permar,along with the collaborating communityand gallery are breaking down the tradi-tions of where public work can be madeand sited. In addition, they challenge thefunction of the art gallery space togetherwith the variety of work and practicesthat it platforms.

‘Public art’ is also sometimesassumed to be open to all: a general termfor a faceless mass of people. Like manyassumptions it is inaccurate and, I wouldadd, not particularly desirable. This seriesof articles has attempted to highlight thediversity of practice and issues that artistsnavigate when they engage with people,places, and ideas. As with any relation-ship, the artist/art/place/public each hasits own idiosyncrasies, problems and tri-umphs. These elements make the rela-tionship interesting and give it meaning.Whether it is a brief affair lastingmonths, or a more long-term engage-ment, it needs passion and commitmentto succeed and, most importantly, be anyfun at all.

Jane Watt is an artist based in London.

ContactsShillam + Smith Architecture and Urbanismwww.urbaneye.co.uk

Samantha WilkinsonSWPA Ltdsam@swpa.com

www.thecaravangallery.co.uk

Coal, Salt, Tin is taking place from May toOctober 2004. For more details contact KarenWatson at East Street Arts, Leeds07967 136142

Roxane Permar’s ‘Rosebud’ will take place during1-8 May 2004 at Newlyn Art Gallery, Cornwall.

Left:Janet Hodgson, TimeMachine. Photo: GarrardMartinA temporary projectioninstallation by JanetHodgson in vacant shopunit, Canterbury citycentre.

Above:Roxane Permar, FourThousand Flowers, 2003.Volunteers from the localcommunity helpedRoxane Permar to lay out4,000 pansies inNormand Park in the firstevent to launch the publicconsultation conducted byarchitects Shillam +Smith for North FulhamNDC.

1 Brick Lane is currentlybeing repaved. At thetime of writing, JonathanRabagliati wasresearching suitableplaces to re-site the word‘seek’.

2 Interestingly, as a publicwork, it cleverly has abuilt-in maintenancecleaning schedule.

3 Shillam + Smith hadalready worked on asimilar, and highlysuccessful consultationprogramme inBirmingham whichresulted in the project ASplash of Colour in 1998.

4 The Cornwall basedgroup Penwith Artists LedProjects (PALP) is co-ordinating Permar’sproject in Newlyn as wellas The Caravan Gallery’stour of all three sites.Multiplus is co-ordinatingStefan Gec’s project inNewcastle and East StreetArts (ESA) is managingLes Biggs and RedundantTechnology Initiative in aweb project in Leeds.

“‘Public art’ is also sometimes assumed to be opento all: a general term for a faceless mass ofpeople. Like many assumptions it is inaccurate”

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