Space invaders | 27 March 2010

Public sculpture is a vital element in the built environment. It expresses the sense of identity, the intellectual and aesthetic sophistication, and the moral compass of those who engender, adopt and accept it. At first glance, therefore, you might think that the obligation to spend a certain proportion of new-build costs on the commissioning of works of art would be welcome and beneficial.

But when it was first introduced in the US about 30 years ago, all that resulted was the sudden appearance of abstract knots of steel, remarkable for their vacuity, in front of every new building. These objects, many of which seemed merely to respond grudgingly to a perceived artistic obligation, produced confusion, irritation and alienation. The most notorious is Richard Serra’s ‘Tilted Arc’ in Federal Plaza in downtown Manhattan, which inconvenienced those who had to live and work around it so much that they agitated for its removal. This was only achieved after a furious legal battle during which, as is usual when criticism is brought to bear on certain contemporary art manifestations, the fascist burning of books was invoked. More often, the public, while resolutely declining to be ‘educated’ into the acceptance of incomprehensible works of art, simply ignore them.

Art is only really useful when it deals with the eternal problems and questions of the human race in a manner relevant to the present. This requires a process of renewal. The sum of history is always at the service of the present and is continuously moulded to suit its particular needs; but the present is itself constantly becoming history. Public sculpture is a versatile means of expressing this process, and of remembering what we have learnt and are learning.