The Public Art Dilemma

As we begin to construct our digital traffic signs that address world issues,  I thought this “public art dilemma” would be perfect to address. In Chicago, the artist, Vik Muniz, created an art piece that featured digitally on a massive highway billboard. The art piece was a portrait of George Stinney who was one of the most recent individuals sentenced to the death penalty. Stinney was only 14 years old. This public representation received a lot of questionable criticism as some individuals dubbed the artwork as “racist” or too disturbing for such a public space. I found this situation to be very interesting because art is becoming more and more public, but in some ways, the world is becoming more and more sensitive, causing a real divide over controversial art. I thought it was an interesting coincidence that we will be making controversial artwork this week in class, especially because similarly to billboards found on a highway, you find these traffic signs all throughout public areas.

Here is the link to an article on this situation:

http://www.artnews.com/2016/12/16/in-the-context-of-no-context-a-digital-billboard-raises-questions-about-art-in-the-public-sphere/