Liberals find their voice on public art

Art is a bit like food and restaurants. Not everyone likes the same thing. Some people think some art is good, but a lot of other people think it is horrible. However it would be awful if there was no art at all. Art is in everything from nature to the man made. People who go to art galleries are generally healthier than those who never enter a gallery. The art makes them feel better. That is why in children’s hospitals there are lots of paintings and craft around the place.

The problem with not using many local artists is that the people who choose the items want to be noticed on the world stage. Take for example the bronze arches at the end of Anzac Parade. You can also see the same arches in USA somewhere – but I can remember.

As the wife of an artist who was told by the so called local authorites in the art system in the local government, we don’t want your work as you don’t have international credability.

So expect more overpriced so called world or interstate art.

mr_spoon said :

I dunno about the Libs: their track record is not crash hot either.

I’d rather have a giant concrete owl and some pretty metal wibbly-wobbly things in Civic than children killed by turning hospital implosions into public spectacles, futsal fields that no one uses, or painting the grass in Bruce Stadium green after it died in its first frost.

Supporting local artists is a good call.

Except this isn’t. Did you read the article ? Only 8 of the 37 works were by local artists.

How about spending whatever public money that is going to be spent on “art”, on “art” that doesn’t blatantly suck?

How about spending it on things that won’t serve as visible, public symbols of their inability to spend public funds wisely or efficiently; that won’t serve as symbols of their contempt for the taxpayers? (Some of this crap they could replace with a huge statue of themselves p!ssing on a group of ordinary citizens and it would basically give the same impression)

If they lack the skill set (which apparently they do) to avoid spending large sums of taxpayer money on stuff that makes them look like incompetent boobs, here’s a suggestion:

If a sum of money is allocated for commissioning a piece of public art, first require the artists applying for the commission to submit both a description and a visual representation of what the thing is going to look like.

(A color drawing, a model…they very well may already do this…it’s the next step that’s critical.)

Once this is done, then select a group of ordinary citizens from the community at random, somewhere between 10 and 20 should be plenty….

Then have this group look at the picture or model….

If the reaction you get is a combination of howls of hysterical laughter, gasps of horror, and people scratching their heads and saying “What the f*ck? ” toss it in the trash and move on….

Seems pretty simple to me…..

I dunno about the Libs: their track record is not crash hot either.

I’d rather have a giant concrete owl and some pretty metal wibbly-wobbly things in Civic than children killed by turning hospital implosions into public spectacles, futsal fields that no one uses, or painting the grass in Bruce Stadium green after it died in its first frost.

Supporting local artists is a good call.

I posted this thread into a forum I use which is less Canberra specific. (Apologies JB.)

An American chum of mine came up with this succinct reply.

Here’s a thought….

How about spending whatever public money that is going to be spent on “art”, on “art” that doesn’t blatantly suck?

How about spending it on things that won’t serve as visible, public symbols of their inability to spend public funds wisely or efficiently; that won’t serve as symbols of their contempt for the taxpayers? (Some of this crap they could replace with a huge statue of themselves p!sing on a group of ordinary citizens and it would basically give the same impression)

If they lack the skill set (which apparently they do) to avoid spending large sums of taxpayer money on stuff that makes them look like incompetent boobs, here’s a suggestion:

If a sum of money is allocated for commissioning a piece of public art, first require the artists applying for the commission to submit both a description and a visual representation of what the thing is going to look like. (A color drawing, a model…they very well may already do this…it’s the next step that’s critical.)

Once this is done, then select a group of ordinary citizens from the community at random, somewhere between 10 and 20 should be plenty….

Then have this group look at the picture or model….

If the reaction you get is a combination of howls of hysterical laughter, gasps of horror, and people scratching their heads and saying “What the f*ck? :shrug ” toss it in the trash and move on….

Seems pretty simple to me…..

I wish I’d kept the flyer I got the other day – it was a photo of the Belco owl, with some blurb about how the Labor party were wasting money on public art, while neglecting other services. This showed up in my mail box a few days back, in West Belconnen, from the local Liberal candidate.

I couldn’t help but think that it would have been much more effective if they’d actually outlined any policies or plans about how they’d have spend the money better. I mean…it’s kinda a free shot, but all I took from it was ‘hey, the Labor party are wasting money, so vote for me so I can spend that money in vague and unspecified ways’.

I’m quite amazed that knowing what the local art cost us all, that the Libs can’t even articulate anything beyond ‘we’ll spend it on roads and hospitals and school and stuff’.

Johnboy’s proposal looks better by the day.
http://the-riotact.com/does-canberra-need-the-act-with-poll/

I don’t like the liberals, both in terms of policy as well as in terms of the candidates themselves.
However, there comes a point in time when a government has been in power for so long that it becomes so overwhelmingly arrogant, corrupt and incompetent that it needs to be removed, if only to wipe the slate clean and force some form of self examination on the part of the party (in this case the Labor Party).
That’s happened in New South Wales and Queensland, and it really needs to happen here.

ACT Labor really deserves to be kicked in the teeth for the way they’ve governed.
The way they just persist and persist with this art garbage while services suffer and people are pushed out of the city by the (engineered) rental crisis is just disgusting.
It’s just rubbing peoples faces in the dirt.

And seriously – if ACT Labor had spent a tenth as much effort fighting the federal government over issues like hospital funding as they did engaging in pointless spats over anti-terrorism laws and civil unions, we might be in a better position to legitimately engage in beatification of the city.

c_c said :

dvaey said :

Maybe they should be diverting this money into essential services, and stop asking for handouts for the essential stuff while they squander money on art and fluff.

Absolutely. Andrew Barr is bragging today about getting $2.5m from the Commonwealth to upgrade Manuka Oval (which is good news), but looks absolutely stupid when they’re blowing millions on public art that generates no return on investment and most of the time doesn’t even support local artists.

How is putting something beautiful (or at least thought-provoking, or even annoying) before people ‘blowing’ money? Seriously, how do we measure the value of the MIA Belcoonen owl, perching above peak hour like a sphinx?

Price of everything yadayada value of nothing etc.

I don’t think anyone wants to live in a concrete Canberra jungle void of art – I think this argument is more about what public art we build not if. Public art will never translate to a line item on the balance sheet but that doesn’t mean it’s not a good investment.