44 Planning in London

Public Art: a private view

NEIL PARKYN

Neil Parkyn argues that Public Art should carry a burden ofpersonal relevance, irreversible loss and perhaps a wider purpose

Not so very long ago a dear architect chum ofmine, Tim Bushe (Walker Bushe Architects) spenta rather chilly afternoon on top of the otherwisevacant Fourth Plinth in Trafalgar Square at thetime when the plinth was open to all comerswith something to show and/or tell. Tim wasenclosed in a glass drum generously vouchsafedby a contractor, from which he observed – anddrew – the buildings around the Square. I have acopy of the result above me as I write. His pur-pose was to raise money for a favourite charity. Living here in France I am now in the habit of

‘deconstructing’ situations, so Tim’s exploit setme thinking on the theme of Public Art. Was Timhimself, briefly, Public Art ? Was his Public Artnorama of buildings likewise? Did the fact thathe was clearly visible matter most ? I must leavethat pesky problem to local philosophes, butthere is much to say, in all seriousness, on thesubject of Public Art in our cities and in our lives.After all Public Art enters our field of visionwithout invitation, you may bump into it orgraze your thigh on a constituent piece ofexposed Cor-ten.We can hardly claim Public Art as a novel

apparition; the stuff has been with us for aeons,gracing a piazza in Umbria, pointing a rifletowards Flanders Fields, glaring down uponskateboarders, even itself being skateboardable.Statues in particular are especially vunerable,not only to graffiti but equally to cruel cartoon-ists. Why is it always the fate of any self-respecting despot to be toppled or decapitated,in statue form at least, by the freedom fighters?If matters become over-laical, then off comethose saintly heads on the tympanum. Sorry,holy chaps! Or, reeling back (or is it forward..?)

what are the apes clustered around StanleyKubrick’s mysterious monolith in ‘2001 – ASpace Odyssey ‘ making of this giant artwork?Would they have awarded the artist an ArtsCouncil grant? (Grunt your answer).Prying a little further one can readily identify

the primary categories of Public Art. It’s a usefuland timely exercise, leading in a reassuringFrench way to a set of shiny new pigeonholes.We can name them: ‘costume jewelery’, ‘puzzle-in-the-park’, ‘stage set’ a ‘arty installation’ andfinally ‘loony literal’. Worth taking a closer look,as follows:

Costume jeweleryThis is one for the devout historians of BritishModernism. A far cry from Dr Goebbel’s famousdismissal of applied sculpture as ‘lipstick on agorilla’, it encompasses all those worthy andwell intentioned confections of metal andsometimes ceramics applied to the otherwiseblank flank of a building. Look no further thanOxford Street’s John Lewis or the TUC Buildingjust off Tottenham Court Road. Can’t leave aBlank Flank alone, it seems. All too often thiscondition stems from the basic banality andurban bad manners of the ‘architecture’ itself. Aflurry of twisted metal won’t bring it back tolife, but it’s a good try. (See also Giant Logos)

Puzzle-in-the-park Meaning a free-standing sculpture in an arcadiansetting or city square. In its purest form it isencountered across a well mown lawn surround-ing a stately home or a proud Polytechnic.Shades of Angus Wilson’s New Town novel ‘LateCall’, a personal favourite. We are talking theseasoned bronzes of a Hepworth or a Moore. Ican just see the new, nervous Vice Chancellorstubbing out a quiet fag on one of them. Or thememorable, secret afternoon when we playedscratch cricket in our architect professor’s gar-den, using a conveniently sized Paolozzi as thewicket!

Stage set These are not conventional, long stay artworks,

but ephemeral displays that tease the punters –a room full of steam, hence zero visibility, blackboxes with myriad sound sources, even an exhi-bition pavilion made from discarded coffee cupsand recycled till rolls. Nothing to hang aroundfor, but reassuring to learn that each pavilion,when recycled, generates over 12KWh of cleanelectricity.

Arty installation These include a set of objects centred on atheme. For ‘Migration’ we substitute, artfully –what else? – piles of old suitcases (don’t forgetthe steamer labels). Or a giant paperclip to sym-bolise the Tyranny of the Office….and so on.

Loony literal Sadly, this is all to often the case, taking a PublicArt brief at face value. One salient example pro-vides a salutary warning. A leading landscapearchitecture practice was commissioned by aclient who was Mr Big in Newfoundland. Herequired a beaver-themed public fountain, aninteresting design challenge which was success-fully completed on site. BUT the imagery was allwrong. Locals complained that real beavers cer-tainly didn’t beaver around, as per legend. Theywere in actual fact lazy and skittish. The fountainwas never altered, but the nicknames flour-ished…..So much for the stand-alone items. While

Neil Parkyn is a retired

architect-planner living in

France. A former member

of RTPI Council, he was a

director of Colin

Buchanan and Partners.

He also chaired the RSA’s

‘Art for Architecture’

scheme

45Issue 101 April-June 2017

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they made excellent sense as celebratory bea-cons – a Great Victory, a Radical Reformer here ora Neglected Group there, they are so oftenfrozen in time, their List of Subscribers becomingillegible with passing traffic. More relevant arethose pieces which the Public has somehowtaken to heart, appropriated and worked intotheir daily lives. One thinks of the Great Clock inGrand Central Station NYC, the front steps ofTate Britain or the Steam Clock in Vancouver. Allthese are functioning objects, meeting places,personal landmarks, therefore taken to heart. Nomatter how small – and one thinks of the dog‘Greyfriars Bobby’ in Edinburgh – they effortlesslyacquire value and purpose. Few people wouldthink of meeting next to a politician’s statue inparliament Square.This would suggest that the most ‘successful’

breed of Public Art is one which has some func-tional purpose, humble or noble. We value,regardless of personal taste or prevailing fashion,Lutyens’ Cenotaph in Whitehall, a masterpiece ofabstract form that can mean all things to all menand take upon itself the burden of nationalremembrance. Or Maya Lin’s Vietnam Veterans’Memorial in Washington DC. Won in competitionwhen Lin was a 21 year old architecture student,it has become a national focus and place of sani-ty for so many. The concept is refreshing simple…

a slope slowly descending into the earth, lined bya wall presenting the names of the fallen in theorder of their deaths. You can touch the wall, beselfied at the appropriate spot, linger, weep orpass by in silence… the very opposite of bombastand brass bands.At this level we are talking of Public Art being

able to carry a burden of personal relevance, irre-versible loss and, perhaps, a wider purpose. Thiscan seldom be achieved by the often self indul-gent and selfish constructions of the lone artistbrought in to liven up the architecture. Perhapsthat’s why so much of, say, 1960s British PublicArt seems today a quaint curiosity, to be studiedat leisure in the parks of Stevenage or theConcrete Cows of Milton Keynes. Enduring PublicArt doesn’t need a nickname for taxi drivers. It isactually a very private affair. n

PHOTOS clockwise from top:Prospectors hard at work, BrisbaneArt at Work: footbridge counterweights in BristolHarboursidBattery Park, New YorkTemporary(floral) art, South of FranceSpelling it out for the postman