UPCOMING TALK
 
estherrolinson.co.uk
 
 
Dear all
I am very pleased to invite you to this event that will be taking place later this week alongside Ten Thousand Thoughts Exhibition at Anise Gallery.
 
 
About the talk
 
When we think about public art in the UK, one of the first places to come to mind will undoubtedly be London’s Trafalgar Square. From Nelson’s Column to the current occupier of the Fourth Plinth, from street performers and protesters to the National Gallery’s collection, owned by the nation, it is a space defined by intersections of public-facing cultural activity. But elsewhere, forms of public art does not always share space with such ease, unsettling our understandings of who art is for and what its purpose is.

Graffiti is a form of public art that remains a scourge for local councils whilst some works may simply exist to lubricate the flow of consumerist activity in city centres. Some works enchant and reimagine public space, evoking a sense of wonder out of the everyday, whilst others provocatively disrupt the day-to-day routines of a city’s visitors and inhabitants and purposefully create discomfort.

In every instance, the production of public art is not an easy task. More often than not, it is something that is fought for. Coinciding with Esther Rolinson’s meditative Shad Thames installation, Ten Thousand Thoughts, this talk will ask what it is to win and lose in the realm of public art — and wonder if, in the end, the best result is just to draw.

We will be welcoming Esther Rolinson, Mark Davy and Zarah Hussain to the gallery to discuss the importance of public art, our shifting understanding of what “public art” is, and the difficulties that face it at present.
 
 
 
   
 
© Esther Rolinson 2020