Human Weathering

David was one of the artists that carried out an Action Research bursary in 2010/2011.

I want to better understand the tensions created by putting works of art into public space. I create landscape interventions and work on a large scale. Everything I create must be left outside and at the mercy of not only the elements but also the public. I separate my audience into three types:

1. visitors and passers by who specifically come to see or who stumble across work and, in a tradition sense, look to engage with it as an art-piece

2. those who don’t interpret work as art but who’s attention is grabbed anyway

3. those who are apathetic or dislike the work and are maybe even offended by its presence

The presence of any members of these groups can impact work – changing from how it was when it was first installed. Visitors and passers by may wear it out by inadvertently bumping into it, others may want to take away a souvenir, some may actively seek to destroy. I work a lot with light and have found that people are very attracted to things that glow!

I want people to engage with my work and consider all responses to be valid forms of engagement. However from the audience’s point of view, these different forms may conflict with each other. I would like to know more about how these tensions can be resolved.

I often seek voluntary help from communities to help with construction. Working in public space creates a good opportunity to do this and allow helpers to move from one audience group to another. However it also raises the possibility that a group seeing ownership of something, will subsequently see it ‘damaged’ by someone else.

I think that it’s possible to become preoccupied with stopping work being damaged. It’s my firm belief that artists and commissioners should take these risks. I don’t think it’s inevitable that work is damaged in public space. As artists, we should strive to create works which incorporate this risk and function in spite of it.

We’re quite comfortable with degradation or change when it’s attributable to wind, rain or shine – or even exhaust fumes.  Blackened limestone or the patina on a copper surface is accepted as giving a works gravitas and a sense of place.  And if that’s not OK, there’re laquer and paint and porticos.  We’ve spent centuries developing ever more sophisticated methods of delaying nature’s inevitable impact.  Why then the problem when it’s caused by people?

Human weathering is, after all, only natural.