Participatory Art and the Politics of Spectatorship - autonomous ...
Participatory Art and the Politics of Spectatorship - autonomous ...
Participatory Art and the Politics of Spectatorship - autonomous ...
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former west<br />
artists <strong>and</strong> collectives who participated in an ambitious exhibition <strong>of</strong><br />
socially engaged art, ‘Culture in Action’, curated by Mary Jane Jacob in<br />
Summer 1993. The eight projects comprising this show st<strong>and</strong> as <strong>the</strong> most<br />
extreme instance <strong>of</strong> ‘<strong>the</strong> social turn’ in exhibition form that year.<br />
Intended as a critique <strong>of</strong> Sculpture Chicago, a biennial that had taken<br />
place throughout <strong>the</strong> 1980s, ‘Culture in Action’ built on Chicago’s eminent<br />
public art tradition as one <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> fi rst cities to install a large- scale work in<br />
public following <strong>the</strong> introduction <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> NEA’s <strong>Art</strong> in Public Places<br />
programme in 1967 (when Picasso’s Untitled [Head <strong>of</strong> a Woman] was<br />
installed in Daley Plaza). In contrast to this ‘plop art’ model, ‘Culture in<br />
Action’ deliberately moved commissions away from <strong>the</strong> central downtown<br />
area <strong>and</strong> into marginalised, predominantly low- income neighbourhoods. It<br />
resulted in eight projects from a wide cross- section <strong>of</strong> artists who worked<br />
with local community groups over a number <strong>of</strong> months <strong>and</strong> even years.<br />
Only one <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> projects could be said to have resulted in a conventionally<br />
‘sculptural’ object, Suzanne Lacy’s Full Circle: a temporary sculpture <strong>of</strong><br />
boulders (with bronze plaques) that formed a monument to women in<br />
Chicago, both compensation for <strong>and</strong> commentary on <strong>the</strong> fact that no<br />
women had ever been honoured in <strong>the</strong> city’s public monuments. But<br />
although <strong>the</strong> work resembles a sculptural intervention in <strong>the</strong> manner <strong>of</strong><br />
Beuys’s 7,000 Oaks (1982), it would be wrong to read it solely in visual<br />
terms. The process <strong>of</strong> nominating <strong>and</strong> selecting 100 women to be honoured<br />
on <strong>the</strong> boulders was done by an advisory group <strong>of</strong> fi fteen women, <strong>and</strong><br />
culminated in a Full Circle dinner on 30 September 1993 – a meal for fourteen<br />
eminent women leaders from around <strong>the</strong> world. The work is typical <strong>of</strong><br />
Lacy’s output in its symbolism, ritualistic fi nale <strong>and</strong> relatively strong visual<br />
identity – even if <strong>the</strong> process remains invisible in <strong>the</strong> fi nal object.<br />
Of <strong>the</strong> seven o<strong>the</strong>r projects, I will focus only on that <strong>of</strong> Mark Dion, since<br />
he participated in all three exhibitions that form <strong>the</strong> focus <strong>of</strong> this chapter. In<br />
Chicago, Dion worked with a team <strong>of</strong> fi fteen high- school students drawn<br />
from two schools (one private <strong>and</strong> one public) on a project that anticipates<br />
<strong>the</strong> present decade’s fascination with education, discussed in Chapter 9.<br />
Dion’s project had three phases: fi rstly, a rainforest study programme;<br />
secondly, a fi eld trip to Belize (where <strong>the</strong> artist had worked on a Tropical<br />
Education Center in 1989– 90); <strong>and</strong> thirdly, <strong>the</strong> creation <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> Chicago<br />
Urban Ecology Action Group, based in an experimental fi eld station set up<br />
in <strong>the</strong> Lincoln Park district <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> city. Located in a former clubhouse, <strong>the</strong><br />
fi eld station was intended to operate as ‘an art installation, a workshop, <strong>and</strong><br />
an ecology information center in operation all summer long’. 29 Each week<br />
was <strong>the</strong>med around topics – such as Darwin, Ecology, or Classifi cation –<br />
<strong>and</strong> featured guest speakers, cooking <strong>and</strong> tours, while also serving as a hub<br />
for <strong>the</strong> group’s community gardening <strong>and</strong> lagoon cleaning projects. Dion<br />
recalls that <strong>the</strong> response to this ‘eco drop- in centre <strong>and</strong> clubhouse’ was<br />
disappointing: although <strong>the</strong> group was on site throughout <strong>the</strong> summer,<br />
203