Renowned artist to host symposium on public art

An installation designed by artist George Segal for a city park in New York, “Gay Liberation,” made its temporary home in Madison’s Orton Park between 1986-1991. During its residency here, the installation attracted praise, criticism and the attention of vandals before it was dismantled and moved to its permanent site.

Public art always has acted as a lightning rod for public opinion. However, renowned public artist Garrison Roots says that might not be the best or primary function of public art.

He is spending this semester as one of the Arts Institute’s interdisciplinary artists in residence. On Friday and Saturday, March 5 and 6, Roots will lead a public colloquium on “The Madison Project: Challenging the Public Art Paradigm” to explore the role of public art in our cultural discourse.

Roots says his own experiences creating public art have convinced him that the issues swirling around the concept need close attention from artists, curators and, perhaps most importantly, the general populace.

“As I moved from one project to another, I became interested in the fact that public art is one of the few areas in public commissions in which non-artists actually play a large role in determining what art is chosen,” he says.

Roots, a professor of fine art at the University of Colorado-Boulder, is known for his large, site-specific installations, which often include an interactive component. China, Russia, Spain, Mexico, Peru and six U.S. cities have exhibited Roots’ work.

During his residency at UW–Madison, he is teaching the course Public Art: From Statues to the Internet, offered jointly through the departments of Art and Landscape Architecture. He says the seminar offers students a new and challenging perspective on what public art is and can be by questioning the ideals of public art.

“Art made for public consumption will play a major role in the critique of contemporary culture, from small towns to established cities throughout the country. Our role, in some small but informed way, is to join the conversation as artists and citizens,” he says. “I find it interesting that, despite the inherent politics of any public process, healthy art is produced. It seems increasingly difficult to offer art for public consumption for fear of someone finding it offensive.”

The symposium will broaden the discussion taking place in Roots’ classroom. Indeed, many participants are critics and nationally acclaimed public artists themselves. Keynote speaker Patricia Phillips is executive editor of the College Art Association’s Art Journal. She will open the symposium on March 5 at 6 p.m. with a discussion of “Why Public Art Matters.”

UW–Madison will send associate professor of sculpture Aristotle Georgiades, landscape architecture professor Janet Silbernagel, Gallery of Design curator David Wells and Art Department lecturer David Norr. All have designed works for public places. Janet Morton, another Arts Institute interdisciplinary artist in residence this semester, and Chris Manke of the Wisconsin Arts Board also will take part.

“The Madison Project: Challenging the Public Art Paradigm” is free and open to the public. All sessions will take place at the Madison Museum of Contemporary Art, 211 State St., which is sponsoring the event along with the Dane County Cultural Affairs Commission, the UW–Madison Arts Institute, and departments of Art and Landscape Architecture.

For a symposium schedule or information: Laura Ng, 263-9290, lng@wisc.edu.

Students, artist embellish tree
With the help of students from the class Transition and Translation in Sculpture, Morton installed temporary public artwork in the form of a four-season tree outside Memorial Library.

Students bought clothing at a thrift store and cut leaf patterns out of the material, using light green for spring leaves, dark green for summer, and reds, oranges and golds for fall. They fastened bunches of the cloth leaves to the tree’s branches, creating a tree with four distinct quadrants, one for each season. The winter quadrant is bare.

The tree is expected to remain embellished for about a month. Students will police the area to pick up leaves that have dropped off.

Morton will do another public art installation on campus this semester as part of the SoHE centennial. She will also participate in a panel discussion about the value of temporary public art during the March 5-6 public art symposium.