The Big Art

Last night I watched the first in C4's series "The Big Art", in which a team of 'art specialists' chose from thousands of applicants who want a piece of public art in their community. I didn't really know what to expect, and to start with I was dreading an tacky reality tv show attempting to be cultural by dragging Anthony Gormley on board. It was ok though, nothing much was made of the selection process and the show quickly moved on to the types of art people wanted and what they were hoping they pieces would bring to their communities.

I t was nice to see untrained people really believing that art can change the public perception, and indeed the world. At one point a group of overweight, aging Irish men were discussing their plans for a large scale sculpture to bring the Catholic and Protestant communities together over a pint. In Burnley a group of school children wanted a piece that was colourful and bright, a stark contrast to their presently concrete town, and one boy in particular said "wouldn't it be great if you could google Burnley and not see the 2001 disturbance, but have this project come up instead". 

I think the programme will get better as the series continues, but already there has been a lot of disagreement. One of the artists says he is not interested in creating what the public want, and a member of the public said he likes art to be beautiful, not contemporary. I'm not sure the public are ready for this, it's all very well to put up a piece of public art and let people either love it or hate it, but I think there are going to be some major fallings out because neither the artist or the public whose proposal has been accepted are likely to back down on their idea. As Anthony Gormley said ""If you were to make work that was based entirely on popular opinion, you would end up like I did ... losing to a rotating cup of tea." 

The ideas behind the project, and the public opinion on it can be seen in this Guardian Article:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/may/09/public-art-project