Paintings and Sculpture Public Installation

Abstract

The objective of this project is to create an art show consisting of large canvas paintings and figurative sculpture that will be displayed at a public space. Normally artwork is shown in a gallery setting. Galleries tend to be formal and austere spaces designed exclusively for intellectual viewing of art. This setting alienates certain groups, such as uneducated and lower class peoples, excluding these groups not by legal boundaries but by social bounds. By having a show in a public setting I will remove these boundaries and bring awareness of contemporary art beyond the art community to the broader public. This show will challenge the people of Juneau to think about how we use public spaces and who gets to use them. The method for achieving this goal is to place the show in a centrally located, public space in conjunction with August Gallery Walk. The primary location will be Pocket Park, located at the intersection of Franklin and Front streets across from the iconic downtown clock. The final component of the project will be documentation from a spatial perspective. The viewers of the show will be given a short survey that will record viewers' perceptions. Conclusions can then be made about how the space is being used, who is using it, why they are using it and what their perceptions of the space are. This information will make it possible to write a research based paper on the interaction of space and art from a Human Geographer's perspective.