#
Date
Title
Source
Description
Tags
W3897
20.05.2011
Public Sculpture - Margaret Honda
WWW
"Public Sculpture" could not exist without an active public but it can exist without a strictly predetermined space and material form. Public Sculpture is a work produced by the people of Limerick and their animals. Following is text for a sign that wi ...

"Public Sculpture" could not exist without an active public but it can exist without a strictly predetermined space and material form.

Public Sculpture is a work produced by the people of Limerick and their animals. Following is text for a sign that will be posted at one or more outdoor locations:

PUBLIC SCULPTURE The work Public Sculpture is produced by you and the animals of Limerick. Please take part! The sculpture is five animals all of a similar color arranged in a line so that their colors form an even gradation from light to dark. An animal can be accompanied by a person.

The sculpture exists every time this arrangement takes place in a public area within the city of Limerick during the e v + a exhibition. More than one instance of the sculpture can exist at the same time either at the same location or at different locations.

I will produce metal signs with the above text. Ideal locations for posting the sign would be a market square, road intersection, or any gathering place that experiences a high level of pedestrian traffic. Also, the text can be posted on the exhibition website so that visitors will understand that the sculpture is not found at a single designated location. By naming the work Public Sculpture, I wish to convey the role of the public in this sculpture more so than the sculpture’s location in public space. In fact, this sculpture could not exist without an active public but it can exist without a strictly predetermined space and material form.

It is possible that the sculpture will not happen on any given day, or that it will happen several times during the same day. In principle, the sculpture could occur simultaneously at different locations—along the river, on a street, in a yard or garden, at a school. Public Sculpture is the opposite of monumental. It has multiple and short lifespans in multiple locations. Everyone who sees the sculpture will not be seeing the same thing. The sculpture will exist only for the participants and viewers who happen to be there at the moment of production, and for anyone who sees any documentation.

The provided description can generate any number of combinations of animals and colors that would fulfill the requirements of the sculpture. While the criteria proposed are visual in nature, the activity of fulfilling them produces a social space in which viewers become participants. Will people discuss the level of precision they are witnessing (“That sheep is more black than grey.”)? Will they encourage others to take part, or offer to find the appropriately colored animal to complete the sculpture? Will people tell each other about alternative groupings they might have seen that make up Public Sculpture?

I live in Los Angeles, so I will never see the sculpture. And it is highly unlikely that any one person will see all its manifestations, or that all occurrences will be documented. Aside from the signs, there is no object to be produced, shipped, sold, or stored by me. Public Sculpture exists only when its conditions are met, and its possibility will end with the close of the e v + a exhibition.

Margaret Honda, 2009

"Public Sculpture" could not exist without an active public but it can exist without a strictly predetermined space and material form. Public Sculpture is a work produced by the people of Limerick and their animals. Following is text for a sign that wi ...

"Public Sculpture" could not exist without an active public but it can exist without a strictly predetermined space and material form.

Public Sculpture is a work produced by the people of Limerick and their animals. Following is text for a sign that will be posted at one or more outdoor locations:

PUBLIC SCULPTURE The work Public Sculpture is produced by you and the animals of Limerick. Please take part! The sculpture is five animals all of a similar color arranged in a line so that their colors form an even gradation from light to dark. An animal can be accompanied by a person.

The sculpture exists every time this arrangement takes place in a public area within the city of Limerick during the e v + a exhibition. More than one instance of the sculpture can exist at the same time either at the same location or at different locations.

I will produce metal signs with the above text. Ideal locations for posting the sign would be a market square, road intersection, or any gathering place that experiences a high level of pedestrian traffic. Also, the text can be posted on the exhibition website so that visitors will understand that the sculpture is not found at a single designated location. By naming the work Public Sculpture, I wish to convey the role of the public in this sculpture more so than the sculpture’s location in public space. In fact, this sculpture could not exist without an active public but it can exist without a strictly predetermined space and material form.

It is possible that the sculpture will not happen on any given day, or that it will happen several times during the same day. In principle, the sculpture could occur simultaneously at different locations—along the river, on a street, in a yard or garden, at a school. Public Sculpture is the opposite of monumental. It has multiple and short lifespans in multiple locations. Everyone who sees the sculpture will not be seeing the same thing. The sculpture will exist only for the participants and viewers who happen to be there at the moment of production, and for anyone who sees any documentation.

The provided description can generate any number of combinations of animals and colors that would fulfill the requirements of the sculpture. While the criteria proposed are visual in nature, the activity of fulfilling them produces a social space in which viewers become participants. Will people discuss the level of precision they are witnessing (“That sheep is more black than grey.”)? Will they encourage others to take part, or offer to find the appropriately colored animal to complete the sculpture? Will people tell each other about alternative groupings they might have seen that make up Public Sculpture?

I live in Los Angeles, so I will never see the sculpture. And it is highly unlikely that any one person will see all its manifestations, or that all occurrences will be documented. Aside from the signs, there is no object to be produced, shipped, sold, or stored by me. Public Sculpture exists only when its conditions are met, and its possibility will end with the close of the e v + a exhibition.

Margaret Honda, 2009