Making art public: towards a new model for public art in Wellington

Abstract

This thesis examines different approaches to public art in Wellington. It considers the problem: how public is public art? Like a museum without walls, Wellington is saturated with spectacular formalist sculpture and urban design. However, a city is not a museum but an historically layered, interactive and contested site that is a thoroughfare for mechanical and human traffic. Currently, the public art that is situated in this space either conforms to the autonomous aesthetics of modernism or to utilitarian urban design. I argue that the existing examples either do not relate to their urban location or the diverse publics that live and work there, or are completely subsumed by the built environment. What is required is a relational position within the urban environment for art in public. This study considers the problem of public art by analysing different models, theories and values currently being employed in the arts sector. It uses a wide range of sources: interview's, primary documents, theoretical literature and the history and theory of public art. Focusing on key local organisations and examples of public art, in particular two case-studies, for the implementation of public art in Wellington, I explore the position, role and audience for art in public, and seek to illuminate the conflicts between existing objectives and values. In addition, the research draws on my own professional experience and observation of working in the field of public art. This thesis makes a significant contribution to museum studies by filling a considerable gap in the New Zealand literature on this topic. The last chapter references the concept of 'anti-art' in the 1960s to explore different art practices that deliberately seeks to disrupt the dominant approach to public art in Wellington. The existing frameworks of art and urban political discourse need to be integrated and developed into a critical multidisciplinary discourse that makes public art more public. The conclusion proposes a new model of public art, a socially engaged practice that relates to the urban landscape and to ever-changing audiences, which may inform current theory, practice and policy.