Public Art at UWA

Photos 1 - 2: The Black Stump, Howard Taylor 1974. Outside Octagon Theatre. Writing around this work at the time implies it may have been SITE SPECIFIC to its original, commissioned location at St Georges Square. However, since it has been (and was at all able to be) moved to UWA it may be considered SITE ADJUSTED. 

Photos 2 - 3: The Dancer, Greg James 1978 - 1979 (Standing dancer. No information could be found on the recently added seated dancer). Sir Lawrence Jackson Courtyard. SITE DOMINANT. “These “works of art” are recognized, understood, and evaluated by referencing their content, purpose, placement, familiar form, materials, techniques, skills, etc…”

What grabbed my attention most about this work is the inherent “paradox of growing wheat on an area of land worth $4.5 billion”1… i.e. prime Manhattan, New York real estate.

What makes that land worth $4.5 billion? That value is placed on it by society, because it sits among the skyscrapers and overlooks the Statue of Liberty etc. But maybe land like that should be of valued for more for it’s ability to raise food and sustain life, rather than its ability to host more concrete and skyscrapers.

The text that I found this work in states that Wheatfield “called attention to the hunger and mismanagement of resource which afflicts some parts of the world whilst others thrive”1. I can’t help but think of all that water from the (also resource intensive) desalination plants going to LANDSCAPING in WA. I.e. maintaining lawns, not food.