Quodlibetica originated from the desire to write about art and visual culture in ways not confined by academic conventions or journalistic hype. Part journal, part blog, Quodlibetica fosters critical conversations about visual arts in a forum that is accessible, engaging, and committed to quality writing. Based on the Latin quodlibet, which has entered the English language as (1) a statement proposed for disputation, (2) the actual discussion, and (3) the whimsical combination of familiar elements, Quodlibetica is a space to argue eloquently and whimsically about art, find out what’s happening in the Twin Cities art scene, and engage with writers, artists, and critics, who like to think. Contact us if you want to get involved.
Public Art
In our eleventh constellation, our eight-plus contributors interrogate and sometimes celebrate the role that public art plays in creating spaces for reflection, for commerce, and for criticism. From bodacious beavers with generous genitals to painterly pizza parlors, our contributors in this constellation examine the best — and the worst — of public art in the Twin Cities and beyond.
In the following piece, we invited participants of the Walker’s Open Field in the summer of 2010 to reflect on this experiment in relational aesthetics. Sarah Schultz, David Lefkowitz, Allison Herrera, Sarah Peters, Charisse Gendron, Scott Stulen, and Sam Gould responded.
Open Field was a summer-long experiment in creating a cultural commons with artists, community and [...]
Published 12.1.2010
by Vadim Gershman
The balloons shocked and confused the curious onlookers. We were greeted with perplexed expressions, double takes, and honks from passing cars. As persistent as it was, we tried to pay no mind to the outside world, focusing instead on the task at hand. Each inflated balloon felt like a [...]
Published 12.1.2010
by Anna Tahinci
During six months, from May 1 2010 (fig. 1) until October 31 2010 (fig. 2), photographer Wing Young Huie transformed Saint Paul’s University Avenue into a six-mile public art exhibition (fig. 3), into a classroom, into a community space, but most importantly into a huge Lacanian mirror of [...]
Published 12.1.2010
by Collier White
A rotten tomato for public art’s ugly face.
Imagine this: for most people, the pinnacle of sculpture and public art in the Twin Cities is the “cherry spoon.”
Does that depress you?
You know, that flagship piece of the Walker Art Center’s own sculpture garden? Actually titled “Spoonbridge and Cherry,” the playfully phallic atrocity [...]
Published 12.1.2010
by Ed Charbonneau
Recently, I was a guest speaker for a class of senior level fine arts students. For the presentation, I was asked to address how I balance my career as an artist that includes working on public commissions, adjunct college teaching, and independent studio work. My portfolio shows a range of painting from nonobjective [...]
Published 12.1.2010
by Christina Schmid
Public art’s role in addressing a community’s concerns, bringing communities together, and being created for—or with—a particular community in mind has been much discussed by proponents of relational aesthetics, dialogic aesthetics, and relational antagonism.[i] Rather than treading this already well–trodden ground, I want to explore a different take [...]
Published 12.1.2010
Thomas O. Haakenson: The Façade of a Radical Theory
Nicolas Bourriaud’s idea of “relational aesthetics” has become something of a theory du jour in certain art and academic circles. The problems with the theory are manifold, however, and artists and academicians using it have only made the theory’s ridiculous foundational assumptions seem somehow chic, hip, and [...]
Published 12.1.2010