In walking the path towards the provenance of Public Art, One has to meet the paradoxical discourses which intersects between the terms of 'Art', 'Public', and 'Public Art'. Technically, 'Art' is a form of expression or application of human consciousness from the imagination towards reality. A subject strip out of its natural context into an artistic object, under the name of a/the 'form'. Furthermore, the provenance of Form can be traced back since the Classical Greek, upon the Theory of Form by Plato, and his concepts of 'Mimesis' (imitation/representation).
In addition to 'Art', the term 'Public' has an extensive dialectic discourse regarding the interplay between the knowledge of Human Civilisation, Society, and Culture. To stand on the Archimedean Point, In acquiring the provenance of 'Public Art' from the term 'Public', I will use the approach, from the study field area of Visual Culture. It is an interdisciplinary field of study emerged out of the interaction of Anthropology, Art History, Media Studies, and many others disciplines focusing on the creation and use of visual objects/images in Society.
Over the course of time, Art Historians deliberately takes the object of Visual Culture as their point of departure. As the famous Hungarian-German Art Historian, Arnold Hauser remarks in The Philosophy of Art History (1959), 'We are living in the day of sociological interpretation of cultural achievements. This day will not last forever, and it will not have the last word', which he denotes the fundamental of culture (visual culture) and society (sociology) as apparently in favour of the pragmatist approach and connecting with principles of Causality, where every event has a caused, and conversely, every cause has an event.
If the term 'Public' in 'Public Art', is addressed towards a Societal notion, then Public Art would have existed since 250, 000 years ago, since the Hunting-and-Gathering Societies were formed. Sociologist distinguishes societies into the 5 following types; Hunting-and-Gathering, Horticultural and Pastoral, Agricultural, Industrial, and Postindustrial (Nolan & Lenski, 2009). On one hand, this would have included existence of the famous cave paintings in Lascaux, France, dating back more than 30,000 years ago, which remained relatively significant towards the Pre-Historic developments of Visual Culture/Art.
However, if the term 'Public' in 'Public Art', is addressed towards the notion of Civilisation, as opposed to the Pre-Historic nomadic Hunting-and-Gathering Societies, Public Art would have existed since Agrarian/Agricultural Societies, approximately 5,000 years ago. This is since the Mesopotamian Period, Egypt, refutably considered as "The Cradle of Civilisation". More to the point, the emergence of a civilise Kingdom of cities and citizens, earliest form of writing system (Cuneiform), earliest complete written legal codes of Law (282 Hammurabi Code), and where many marvels of mankind paved its way in the name of History. Furthermore, this notion remarks the connection between 'function' (City) and 'Use' (Citizen) in the understanding of Modern-Contemporary process of Public Art.
Nevertheless, the provenance on the previous discourse of 'Public Art' in terms of Civilisation and Society remains a conflict of interest due to its modern notion, where the latter is opposed to the former in regards of Dynamic changes in Society and Culture (Visual Culture). More notably, this type of change is pragmatically accepted due to changes in time and space, according to Hauser's remark in The Philosophy of Art History (1959). Apparently, The National Gallery of British Art (TATE Britain), defined the term 'Public Art', as "Art that is in the Public Realm, regardless of wether it is situated on Public or Private property or whether it has been purchase with Public or Private Money", this given definition regards 'Public Art' objective towards 'Artwork' as in the Public Realm. Where the Public Artwork does intervene, invoke, and provoke the Audience physically or visually, albeit Publicly or Privately the ownership and setting it confines.
Visual Culture in the Context of Postindustrial Society, in spite of everything has witnessed dynamic change/shifts towards the Locus Point of Attention in Public Art, where its former predecessor in classical-modern period focused on the interest of the Patron/Maker, while the latter contemporary focused on the essential-interest of the Public/User. Correspondingly, A whole Site-Specific context is enculturated, where the site becomes the subject towards the form of the Artwork. Meanwhile, in a way the experience of the Artist (Individual) is transcended towards a whole new experience shared by the common Public (Collective). Last but not least, Temporal Public Art forms liberated the notion of 'Time' as unconditioned, whereas public realm liberated the notion of 'Space' in disregard of Private ownership/setting.
With that being said, the Taxonomy of Public Art in the context of Visual Culture remains fundamental attribute towards the establishment and direction of holistic World Public Art Organisations, Academic bodies and Network.
For instance, Universiti Teknoligi MARA (UiTM), as one of the Leading Higher Education Provider (HEP) in Art & Design, from Malaysia has granted PACAQ (Public Art Creative Aesthetics Quality) as one of the official Research Interest Group (RIG), to spearhead the development of Public Art specifically in Malaysia and throughout the World. PACAQ is a Non-Profit Organisation (NPO) consisting of Professional Researchers & Practitioners in the field area for the sake of Malaysian Public Art-Scene.
Thank You
Reference:
Nolan, P., & Lenski, G. (2009). Human societies: An introduction to macrosociology (11th ed.). Boulder, CO: Paradigm.
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