Exhibition

making public / art

exhibition to coincide with the opening of SoundUnit
a public art commission by Chichester District Council, Rolls-Royce, University of Chichester.

17.06 – 30.07.2010 artOne building, University of Chichester

• DVD1: Construction SoundUnit (2009) Video 23 min, colour and sound.
  Documentation as part of the public art commission
• DVD2:  Making Public / Art (2008) Slide show 6 min, b/w and colour, no sound.
• desk: three random points (2007-2010) work in progress, desk, A4 prints, pins, string and pens.
• small prints: Making Public / Art (2008-10) Series of  A4 digital prints.
• large prints: Making Public / Art, on site (2010) digital print 1190 x 700 mm
• Making Public / Art, London (2010) digital print 840 x 560 mm
• Making Public / Art, Firenze (2010) digital print 840 x 560 mm
• Making Public / Art, New York (2010) digital print 840 x 560 mm

All work except DVD1 available for sale
please email wvr105 – at- gmail- dot-com
www.axisweb.org/artist/waltervanrijn

making art also means making public

For the public art commission I installed a sort of pavilion, which functions as art and at the same time as site to exhibit or just a place to use. In a way the artwork occupies 2 worlds. First as object belonging to a category of art works, primarily linked to artists. Second as context, a situation as a framework for art, which is primarily linked to the public. That this work occupies both positions is a cause for a lot of confusion not only because they are intricately linked but also because I have consciously blurred these two positions.

In the exhibition I have extended this strategy by opening up ways to explore the idea that making art also means making public. Not only in the sense of display and exhibition, but also in the sense that each art work creates a situation and an audience.

Each site and each object has its potential users, but it is the users who have the choice to go or to engage. Museums and galleries are sites that select what can be seen or said at a particular place and time.  They also manage the behaviour of the audience for instance no eating, drinking, photographing, sleeping, making lots of noise etc. The works Making Public / Art are blurring the object/site aspects of art, by creating shortcuts in the normal procedures of the art world. Procedures that narrate and validate a particular thing as art. These images document a validation of art and the choices I have as artist and as public.  Walter van Rijn

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