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May 31, 2005
Brisbane is an enlightened city compared to Adelaide in relation to art. It has picked up where Adelaide left off in the 1970s when the the Dunstan period ended in SA. Under the Beattie Government's creative Queensland policy an enlightened program of 2% of all public building budgets has been devoted to public art since July 1999. Around 92 projects have been registered with the Public Art Agency, totalling $14.4 million, with over 500 jobs created for artists and artsworkers throughout the State.
So Brisbane has seen a noticeable increase in art inhabiting its streets and buildings. Adelaide,in contrast, just talks about art adding creativity and zest to a boring dying city.
Public art? What immediately comes to mind are Victorian statues of N British royalty, water fountains, Anzac memorials and modernist squares and triangles. But times change as does the public sculpture.
So what has been produced in Brisbane by way of art that is located out on the streets among the people instead of being placed in an art gallery? An example:
Christopher Trotter, Bunyip Dragonfly, 1998
More on public art in Brisbane can be found here.
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Public art is far too often an artists comprimise to what the public would be willing to have in that location and what the comissions requires. In my opinion there are very few examples in Australia where the artist has only considered his or her own artistic intent.