Publications

A very public affair

By: Jane Watt

For the final article in this series Jane Watt asks artists and commissioners about their involvement in current innovative projects.

Artworks that are made in the public realm can take a long time to be realised due to lengthy consultation, planning applications, complicated construction and contracting procedures. Once the work has been completed there may be press releases, postcards and glossy brochures proclaiming the unveiling of a public artwork. However, the artists, and their work, have often moved on to another project. Seeing these works can be like viewing a recently discovered star in the sky. Although new to us the viewer, we are actually seeing it light years after its birth. It's old news. Therefore, in order to get an up-to-date idea of what artists are doing 'now' in the public realm, and what is innovatory, we have to look at work that is in progress or about to be made. Alternatively, we can look at work made in more of a guerrilla, or interventionist manner – projects that by-pass bureaucratic negotiations.One such work is Jonathan Rabagliati's Notes to Myself [Footnotes to the City]. This is a series of four pavement pieces that Rabagliati has made around London. If you head up Cork Street you may chance upon the word 'hope' drilled into the pavement. Half way along Brick Lane you...

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