ONE PLACE AFTER ANOTHER - Monoskop

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their project was met within the context of “Culture in Action,” and that if the artists were
interested in pursuing it further they should find another source of support. Even though True
Test agreed to “host” the project in spring 1994 (over six months after the exhibition’s closing),
Sculpture Chicago felt that, without a promotional tie-in to a major cultural event, the
meaning of the project would be completely lost to the random paint customer, resulting in a
waste of time and money for all involved. The artists accused Sculpture Chicago of using
them and the community resident group for its own public relations purposes, and charged
that the overall conceptual frame of “Culture in Action” was hypocritical. Sculpture Chicago in
turn viewed the artists as inflexible and impractical.
To ameliorate the situation, Sculpture Chicago considered a “kill fee” for the project
(though this did not materialize) and, at the insistence of the artists, paid the resident group
$3,000 for their involvement in “Culture in Action.” But the situation was further exacerbated
when Ericson and Ziegler refused to contribute any materials to the exhibition catalogue,
which they deemed another form of Sculpture Chicago’s self-promotion. This refusal led
Sculpture Chicago to solicit the assistance of Kelly Rogers of the Sidley Austin law office to
clarify that the artists had a legal obligation to provide materials for the catalogue. In the end,
it seems no one wanted to pursue a legal battle, and the artists reluctantly contributed their
work to the catalogue, quibbling over the wording of certain aspects of the project description
as authored by Mary Jane Jacob.
19 See chapter 3, note 58, on the discursive genesis of new genre public art.
20 Suzanne Lacy, “Cultural Pilgrimages and Metaphoric Journeys,” in Lacy, ed., Mapping the
Terrain, 19.
21 Ibid., 20.
22 Arlene Raven, ed., Art in the Public Interest (1989; New York: Da Capo Press, 1993).
23 Ibid., 1.
24 Ibid., 4.
25 Ibid., 18.
26 Lacy, “Cultural Pilgrimages,” 25.
27 Ibid., 20.