‘Public Art’, or ‘Public Sculpture’, doing ‘Sculpture Commissions’ is fraught.
Generally speaking, these activities are automatic indications of failure, or having sold out, of having compromised core values for ulterior motives or to have ben subjugated by fashion.
And it’s a good point, especially when correctly observed. Most of the work produced by these activities fails to deliver the best work by that artist. No process delivers reliably good results.
What is true elsewhere also applies here. That is, that rules are made where observations have been successfully applied. Most commissioned work extracts a diluted version of the best that an artist can produce. The argument goes that by responding to a brief, one has inevitably compromised one’s highest values. To make a work ‘safe’, it forgoes the right to be edgy, both literally and metaphorically.
I have found doing commissioned work enjoyable and productive. I have found a brief can ‘concentrate’ my voice rather than dilute it. A brief can ignite what is otherwise dormant, hidden by my usual preoccupations. Rather than suffocate, a brief is fresh air.
Just as performing live can extract the best performance by a singer, so is it true for the sculptor. I will support any process that makes me ‘shine’.
In the meantime and for the duration of my life, I shall accept the power of the prevailing taste opinions.
The opininion mongers have an important role to keep order.