ONE PLACE AFTER ANOTHER - Monoskop

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specificity, quite explicitly opposed to an integrationist or assimilative one. 31 Deutsche has argued that public art discourse’s use of the term site specificity to connote the creation of harmonious spatial totalities is close to a “terminological abuse,” insofar as site-specific art emerged from “the imperative to interrupt, rather than secure, the seeming coherence and closure of those spaces [of the art work’s display].” 32 In her view, Tilted Arc reasserted the critical basis of site specificity, countering its neutralization in the public art of the 1980s. In doing so, it revealed the incompatibility of site specificity with the kind of objectives held by the GSA. My concern here, however, is not so much to establish the right definition of site specificity as to examine the ways in which competing definitions emerge and operate in the public art field, and to assess their varied artistic, social, and political implications and consequences. The terms of Serra’s “critical” or “political” site specificity, 33 in fact, remain more ambiguous than one might expect. This is in large part due to the emphasis placed on permanence as a fundamental attribute of site specificity during the Tilted Arc controversy. Serra himself mounted his argument against the “relocation” of his sculpture on the premise that, first and foremost, site- specific art has an inviolable physical tie to its site. Hence, to remove the work is to destroy the work. He insisted throughout and after the controversy that Tilted Arc was conceived from the start as a site-specific sculpture and was not meant to be “site-adjusted” or . . . “relocated.” Site- specific works deal with the environmental components of given places. The scale, size, and location of site-specific works are determined by the topography of the site, whether it be urban or landscape or architectural enclosure. The works become part of the site and restructure both conceptually and perceptually the organization of the site. 34 While the insistence on permanence during the court hearings might have had some legal exigency, the priority given to the issue has obscured certain other 73 SITINGS OF PUBLIC ART: INTEGRATION VERSUS INTERVENTION
74 aspects of Tilted Arc’s site specificity. 35 For instance, Serra does seem to prioritize the physical relationship between the art work and site in comments like the following from the same article: “The specificity of site-oriented works means that they are conceived for, dependent upon, and inseparable from their locations. The scale, the size, and the placement of sculptural elements result from an analysis of the particular environmental components of a given context.” 36 But he goes on to say that “ the preliminary analysis of a given site takes into consideration not only formal but also social and political characteristics of the site. Site-specific works invariably manifest a judgment about the larger social and political context of which they are a part.” 37 In other words, the site is imagined as a social and political construct as well as a physical one. More importantly, Serra envisions not a relationship of smooth continuity between the art work and its site but an antagonistic one in which the art work performs a proactive interrogation—“manifest[s] a judgment” (presumably negative)—about the site’s sociopolitical conditions. Indeed, rather than fulfilling an ameliorative function in relation to the site, Tilted Arc aggressively cut across and divided it. (No seating, shading, or other physical accommodations here.) In doing so, as proponents of the sculpture have pointed out, Tilted Arc literalized the social divisions, exclusions, and fragmentation that manicured and aesthetically tamed public spaces generally disguise. In destroying the illusion of Federal Plaza as a coherent spatial totality, Serra underscored its already dysfunctional status as a public space. According to Serra, it is only in working against the given site in this way that art can resist cooptation. Works which are built within the contextual frame of governmental, corporate, educational, and religious institutions run the risk of being read as tokens of those institutions. ... Every context has its frame and its ideological overtones. It is a matter of degree. But there are sites where it is obvious that an art work is being subordinated to / accommodated to / adapted to / subservient to / useful to. ... In
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MIWON KWON ONE PLACE AFTER ANOTHER
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MIWON KWON ONE PLACE AFTER ANOTHER
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For Umma and Appa
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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS The first incarnati
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ONE PLACE AFTER ANOTHER
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2 become insignificant or innocuous
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4 no discrete separations or neat p
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6 for the consideration of another
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8 In the final chapter, the dissipa
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10 Robert Smithson, Partially Burie
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12 establishing an inextricable, in
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14 itself, falls into the illusion
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Daniel Buren, photo-souvenir: Withi
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from the physical condition of the
Page 36 and 37: Mierle Laderman Ukeles, Hartford Wa
Page 38 and 39: Group Material, DaZiBaos, poster pr
Page 40 and 41: Mark Dion, New York State Bureau of
Page 42 and 43: tion), a neighborhood or seasonal e
Page 44 and 45: cal determinants, which are not exa
Page 46: � UNHINGING OF SITE SPECIFICITY M
Page 50 and 51: Richard Serra, Splash Piece: Castin
Page 52: adamant their critique of dominant
Page 55 and 56: 42 the point of (re)production. Tha
Page 58 and 59: Faith Wilding, Womb Room (Crocheted
Page 60 and 61: now by which the artist comes to ap
Page 62 and 63: 49 UNHINGING OF SITE SPECIFICITY
Page 64 and 65: Thus, if Richard Serra could once d
Page 66 and 67: establishment, the exhibition wante
Page 68 and 69: of various cities a matter of produ
Page 70: composition in green, with yards of
Page 73 and 74: 60 decades. Our story will concentr
Page 75 and 76: 62 Isamu Noguchi, Red Cube, Marine
Page 77 and 78: 64 examples of it in public places,
Page 79 and 80: 66 come. 18 Thus, despite the numer
Page 81 and 82: 68 Nancy Holt, Dark Star Park, Ross
Page 83: 70 < Lobby of the Wiesner Arts and
Page 88: such cases it is necessary to work
Page 91 and 92: 78 artistic practice). In fact, the
Page 93 and 94: 80 than promotes the fantasies of p
Page 95 and 96: 82 logue between the artist and his
Page 97 and 98: 84 of the community within which th
Page 100 and 101: John Ahearn and Rigoberto Torres, c
Page 102 and 103: In many street casting sessions, he
Page 104 and 105: Department of General Services who
Page 106 and 107: homes—the execution may be shoddy
Page 108 and 109: could not be imagined belonging any
Page 110 and 111: though the issue cannot be pursued
Page 112 and 113: larly illuminates the conflicted na
Page 114 and 115: Suzanne Lacy and A Coalition of Chi
Page 116 and 117: Sculpture Chicago were shocked to b
Page 118 and 119: Dealing with some of the most profo
Page 120 and 121: galleries. They choose instead the
Page 122 and 123: ound to a geographical region. 33 I
Page 124 and 125: tend to speak in terms of community
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Page 128 and 129: give voice to underrepresented and
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Page 132 and 133: seemed to connect them was service
Page 134 and 135: such specific community groups. 56
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certain community group by the spon
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a local facilitator (Carol Becker o
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Mark Dion and the Chicago Urban Eco
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Daniel J. Martinez, VinZula Kara, a
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Haha and Flood: A Volunteer Network
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Iñigo Manglano-Ovalle and Street-L
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video production studio. With the n
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fact, the uncertainty of identity e
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contemporary lust for authentic his
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quickly that her interest in pursui
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character flaw (lack of initiative,
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nity groups. It is perhaps not surp
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the neighborhood, from the city: th
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presumption of community-based art
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in a particular social issue, such
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zations are pressured today to thin
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This is not necessarily to assert i
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“wrong” place. We are out of pl
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some sociologists prefer). 10 These
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The play begins with Majeski recent
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systems. The enormous sense of powe
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eactive, cultivating what is presum
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Gabriel Orozco, Isla dentro de la i
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7 The term is borrowed from Hal Fos
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10 Daniel Buren, “The Function of
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Kolbowski; and chapter 5, note 31 f
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mal art colleagues, he used fabrica
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18 See J. I. Gershuny and I. D. Mil
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Projects” share a similar investm
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through a small committee of art ex
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of the National Endowment for the A
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39 On this point, see Hal Foster,
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61 Ibid. 62 Others not necessarily
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tures were painted. Perhaps for thi
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5 The change in exhibition title si
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Issues Are Focus of New Public Art
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28 See Jeff Kelley, “Common Work,
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Sculpture Chicago staff. One part o
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various color choices available for
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party are described as “the first
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lows: “Often artist and community
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30 Kester, “Aesthetic Evangelists
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constitution of the public sphere a
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Press, 1997), 7. Much of Lippard’
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INDEX Page numbers in italics indic
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Democracy, 80, 107, 116 Democratiza
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Lindell, John, 28 Linker, Kate, 66-
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Shamash, Diane, 103 Site discursive
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