Outsider Art @outsiderart - Tumblr Blog

Commissioned nearly 15 years ago, the bulbous outdoor artwork was delayed by the 2008 financial crisis and the Covid-19 pandemic

I can see how 15 years ago this would have been a more exciting addition but now it feels so tired and derivative. I also can't imagine that 15 years ago there weren't other monumental public sculptors around that one could commission for this space that would have been just as eye-catching if that is what one was looking for.

Le sigh.

hydeordie

Veronica Ryan wins the Turner Prize

It is wild to me how time changes and priorities focus. The Turner Prize used to be the art award I looked forward to most annually. Is it because my view of the world and the art world and what is important has widened? Is it because £25,000 doesn't go as far as it used to? There are a few other things I think that might contribute, I'm sure it's a combination of all of the above and more...but it is interesting. I don't even know when it shifted...

hyperallergic

Over 6,000 people have signed a petition to uninstall the eight-foot-tall bronze monument, a jarringly imprecise monument to the iconic leader in the Civil Rights Movement.

(via Buffalo Residents Want a Remake of a Busted Bust of MLK)

publicartfund

Happy Birthday to artist Do-Ho Suh! Suh questioned the role of memorials and statues with his 1998 Public Art Fund commission “Public Figures”. This installation consisted of a pedestal supported by hundreds of miniature, anonymous male and female figures. This refocused the viewer’s attention from the individual to the masses. Bit.ly/PublicFiguresPAF

publicartfund

In honor of Women’s History Month, every #WCW we’re sharing #5WomenArtists from each of our four decades. Today we highlight our second decade: Lorna Simpson, Sophie Rivera, Guerrilla Girls, Rhonda Ronald Shearer, Ursula von Rydingsvard. Follow #5WomenArtists all month!

historicaltimes

A wheatfield in the heart of Manhattan, 1982

via reddit

brehaaorgana

The caption on this photo really does the artist and this art piece such a disservice! I recognized it from an Art History seminar I took. This is actually Agnes Denes’ Wheatfield – A Confrontation: Battery Park Landfill (1982). (So technically Downtown Manhattan). It’s by the accomplished Land Artist Agnes Denes (and it’s her in this picture) - she’s a Jewish woman who survived the Nazi occupation of Hungary as a child (she was born in 1931). Her repeated changing of languages while growing up compelled her to take an interest in the visual arts where she could express herself beyond just words.

This isn’t JUST a wheatfield in the heart of Manhattan. The entire field is part of the art, meant to make an incredibly powerful statement about capitalism, environment, ecology, commerce, food, poverty, etc.

This field of wheat started as a landfill:

The Wheatfield you see above is two acres of landfill that the artist transformed into a field of wheat.

You can see the reclaimed field here! The two buildings behind Agnes are the World Trade Center towers.

Agnes is one of the pioneers of Land Art - and certainly the stand out woman pioneer of Land Art.

Two acres of wheat planted and harvested by the artist on the Battery Park landfill, Manhattan, Summer 1982.

After months of preparations, in May 1982, a 2-acre wheat field was planted on a landfill in lower Manhattan, two blocks from Wall Street and the World Trade Center, facing the Statue of Liberty. Two hundred truckloads of dirt were brought in and 285 furrows were dug by hand and cleared of rocks and garbage. The seeds were sown by hand and the furrows covered with soil. The field was maintained for four months, cleared of wheat smut, weeded, fertilized and sprayed against mildew fungus, and an irrigation system set up. The crop was harvested on August 16 and yielded over 1000 pounds of healthy, golden wheat.

Planting and harvesting a field of wheat on land worth $4.5 billion created a powerful paradox. Wheatfield was a symbol, a universal concept; it represented food, energy, commerce, world trade, and economics. It referred to mismanagement, waste, world hunger and ecological concerns. It called attention to our misplaced priorities. The harvested grain traveled to twenty-eight cities around the world in an exhibition called “The International Art Show for the End of World Hunger”, organized by the Minnesota Museum of Art (1987-90). The seeds were carried away by people who planted them in many parts of the globe.

The questionnaire was composed of existential questions concerning human values, the quality of life, and the future of humanity. The responses were primarily from university students in various countries where I spoke or had exhibitions of my work. Within the context of the time capsule the questionnaire functioned as an open system of communication, allowing our descendants to evaluate us not so much by the objects we created—as is customary in time capsules—but by the questions we asked and how we responded to them.

The microfilm was desiccated and placed in a steel capsule inside a heavy lead box in nine feet of concrete. A plaque marks the spot: at the edge of the Indian forest, surrounded by blackberry bushes. The time capsule is to be opened in 2979, in the 30th century, a thousand years from the time of the burial.

There are, still within the framework of this project, several time capsules planned on earth and in space, aimed at various time frames in the future.

Postscript: The above text that was written in 1982 has now added poignancy and relevance after 9/11/01

lacma

I will be posting two of my favorite murals in Los Angeles, this is one of them at Estrada Courts housing projects. Do you have a favorite mural? If so, which one and where is it located? Comment below 👇🏾 http://ift.tt/2ufONCk

npr

Police say a man drove a 2016 Dodge Dart into the 6,000-pound granite slab less than a day after it was installed on the grounds of the state Capitol. The man reportedly took video as he accelerated.

standupbard-deactivated20171201

big fucking mood

walkerartcenter

Katharina Fritsch’s Hahn/Cock (2013/2017) has arrived to its plinth in the Minneapolis Sculpture Garden. The Minneapolis Sculpture Garden opens with an opening day celebration on June 3. Photo by Greg Beckel, courtesy Walker Art Center, Minneapolis

After 'Stolen' Art Used In Michelle Obama Mural, Artist Aims To Make Amends

hragv

On Berry Street

installator

“Installation process of Ugo Rondinone’s, HELL, YES!” (New Museum)

noguchimuseum

Isamu Noguchi, Red Cube, 1968, painted steel

Broadway between Libert and Cedar Streets, Lower Manhattan

Photo by Michio Noguchi

The Noguchi Museum Archive

britticisms

at Chicago, Illinois

creativetime

Expensive sculptures are often funded from the same small pot of money as affordable housing, public space and highways improvements – but do we really need a physical manifestation of a developer’s guilty conscience?

Curious about best practices in public art? This is a good read.