come for the art, stay for the BBQ

In a few days seven artists will present nine concepts for two new public artworks to a panel for consideration. These artworks will be part of the new Braybrook Comminuty Hub development. This panel meeting will take place on Tuesday, February 4, from 10 AM to about 2 PM at the Braybrook Pavilion located in Braybrook Park and the public is invited to partcipate. In an unpresidented process for a council, the public and the voting panel will see the artists’ proposals for the first time at the same time. The public will then have an opportunity to comment on the work during discussion periods and hopefully influence the voting panel’s decision making. At noon, as the panel continues the BBQ begins. The public can come and go inbetween presentations and once all the artists have presented the main discussion will begin.

defining community

According to the most recent survey, the Braybrook community centre attracts quite a culturally diverse group with members hailing from countries like India, Bangladesh, Burma, Russia, Japan and many more. The survey revealed a 83.5% female population, almost 70% over 55 year-olds, and 75.2% attend the Centre weekly for activities such as bingo, line dancing, Tai chi and of course the community gardens. As the artists are conceptualizing their ideas, the targered audience or community plays a very important role in that thinking. It’s important that the community relates to the artwork on some level and feel a connection to the message behind the work. The hope is that if the community feels the work relates to them, they take ownership. If they take ownership they protect it. If they protect it then it becomes part of the fabric of the community. BUT how an artist defines a community may differ from how a community chooses to define itself. These neuances can sometimes determine the success of a project.

In 1988, New York artist John Ahearn was commissioned to create a series of sculptures for a courtyard outside a police station in the South Bronx. At the time, the South Bronx was fraught with the problems associated with poverty like drugs, violence and derelict properties. Ahearn, a resident of the South Bronx himself was known for making casts of people in the neighborhood. After a long commissioning process his concept was approved and eventually, in 1992, he made three casts of area residents: Daleesha, Raymond and his dog Toby, and Corey.The bronze sculptures, mounted on pedestals, sparked a controversy throughout the community of the South Bronx over the appropriateness of these images as public art. Daleesha was a street kid; Raymond a junkie, and Corey a hustler. While the models for these characters were black, Ahearn is white. The sculptures were removed after a few days.

Corey

Daleesha

Raymond and his dog Toby

out with the old...making room for the new braybrook community hub

making connections

It's always interesting to hear what inspires an idea for a public art project. Like all the other artists something about Braybrook or the community center has captured the imagination of Sahra and Jannette and they are running with it.

size does matter

I had a great conversation with Mark while we went over his proposal ideas. It centered around scale. 

Apart from the budget, careful consideration must be made when determining how large or small the work should be. Large works command presence while small works invite a more intimate interaction. 

the holy trinity...

The Panel…

It’s always been hard to gauge the success of a permanent public artwork, sometimes taking years to register the impact it has on its environment. There are always reasons for commissioning the work and the commissioning agency attaches goals and expectations to that work and hope the artists can deliver. As a result, it all comes down to two simple questions,  “What do you want the art to do” and  “How can I give you what you want in ways you least expect it?” To succeed, it needs to rely on a shared visual language, accepted and understood by its audience. This is reached only with the very best processes of consultation and selection and it begins with the panel.

A good selection panel consists of what I call the holy trinity of public art. No more and no less. They are the Voting Members, the Advisors and the Public.  Thought the number within each group can vary significantly, each play an important role towards a successful public art project.

The Voting members are the gatekeepers. They are the aesthetic and quality police whose job is to insure the integrity of the artwork. Voters are almost always art, design or creative professionals and have a vested interest in enhancing the city’s public art collection. They make sure that there is ART in public art and are tasked with making the final selection after weighing the advice from the two other groups.

The Advisors are the technicians. They scrutinize the artwork for durability in an ever-changing environment, analyzing possible maintenance concerns, and matters around safely, installation and overall infrastructural issues.

The Public are the proprietors. They serve as the artists’ muse and inspiration. They are the PUBLIC in public art as the artworks are made for them and with them in mind. Ultimately they take ownership of the work, as it becomes part of their environment.  The public can also be seen as advisors to the voting panel and sometimes have great power in swaying their decisions.

It is rare that a singular artwork or vision is ever accepted by all, but when these three groups work together with mutual respect and appreciation the results pave the way for an artwork that instills civic pride into its intended community.

The provocative "Bad Dog" sculpture was very effective in attracting an audience to a Richard Jackson retrospective at the Orange County Art Museum in California. The exhibition was titled "Aint Painting A Pain" and the dog would occasionally pee yellow paint onto the building's facade.   

the artists at work...

Like all the artists preparing proposals, Jos and Mary are diligently working away. Seriously thinking about how their concepts and designs can speak to the community in a positive and enlightening way while complimenting the goal and mission of the new Braybrook Community Hub.

unfolding the hub

The existing Braybrook Community Centre, at 107 Churchill  Avenue, Braybrook,   currently provides community meeting and activity spaces, community kitchen, public access computers, programs run by the Braybrook Men’s Shed, Maternal &  Child Health, and Community Health services delivered by the Western Region Health Centre [WRHC] and the College of Optometry. On a tight project budget and programme the proposed alterations and additions to the Community Centre will extend these existing facilities to include a new Public Library and Community Learning areas, Sports Pavilion, Early Years Centre kindergarten and occasional care, plus upgraded facilities for Maternal Child Health, Community Kitchen and Hall / Meeting areas, covering circa 4000 sqm area.

Situated in the heart of Braybrook the second most  disadvantaged  suburb  in  Victoria  -  this  new  Braybrook Community Hub project is planned to assist in redressing the local disadvantage. To deliver this plan, the new Hub needs to establish a positive connection with the hard environment. It needs to respond to community needs and even their delight / frustration, and formulate a character and trusts sufficient for the locals to claim communal ownership, but not too much as to become a foreign landmark. As equally important, the building has to promote flexibility and functionality demanded by the community. 

The design explores (social) creature-building which is happiest when it can receive an appropriate attention. As the building presence depends on community, environment to contextually registering its otherness, the redevelopment is articulated as a building in the round, welcoming and accessible on all sides both literally and metaphorically.  Unlike the existing Community Centre there is no proposed ‘back of house’ to the building to help improve park safety and minimise vandalism.

The building form is centrifugal in footprint and takes its cue from the idea of connectedness, expressed by a series of five radiating wings projecting out from lofty central volumes on all sides.  Each of the projecting wings are extensively glazed, screened by the warmth and tactility of recycled timber and glazed screens set two metres beyond the skin of the building for ease of maintenance and sun protection.   In the case of the Needle & Syringe program area (undertaken as part of early works), the screen provides a discrete point of entry.

The library facade design is complemented by a series of glazed screens strategically prescribed to correspond with the building orientation, angle of the sun, visual connection to / from reading areas, and metaphorically evoke unfolding leaves (of book) which suggest collective living and learning. The screens are carefully continued around the building provoking curiosity as to what’s existing / new and introduce peripheral transparency, scale play and a trellis landscape.

A wide, visually open and welcoming Main Entry Foyer, incorporating a social enterprise cafe and  a  generous landscaped outdoor entry  area, traverses the  width of the building linking each new and refurbished area of the building together. Landscaping design will also be enforced between the new Hub and the existing oval. Internally, high level clerestory natural light is employed as both a way-finding means and to create a sense of uplift.  Double height volumes with clerestory light are proposed to the Main Foyer, Library, Sports Pavilion, Early Years Foyer and Children’s Rooms, and the Maternal & Child Health areas.

As one can subliminally embrace emotional connection with buildings while realistically know that they are utilitarian places, the use of practical design and architectural materials can enhance this connection and assist with sense of ownership, which is particularly important for this building. Just as the architectural transformation of natural materials such as glass of wood have dynamic thought and sense provoking qualities either through the passage of time, use or erosion articulates a moment in process; the change process experienced by the locals living in the changing urban environment of Braybrook, with colourful origins and purposes, is a testament to histories compressing present and future into essential moments.  As demonstrated in  the new  Braybrook Community Hub,  everyday experience of architecture must not only be  a demand of ideas,  but  also strive for psychological space  which captures these moments.

whose art is it?

One of the most enjoyable parts of my job is interacting and collaborating with other artists. In my own art-making practice collaboration is key and is the bedrock of each and every project. For the purpose of this project however, I am a public art curator.  So although there is no collaboration with the artists on their projects, discussing the philosophical issues around creating a work for the public is very complex and interesting. A couple of the artists in one way or another wanted to know who were they really making the art for, in other words, who did they need to please. The answer should be simple but it never is. As the old adage goes,  “you can please some of the people some of the time… but not all of the people all of the time”, therefore the goal shouldn’t be about pleasing anyone in particular but about creating what you believe is the best work of art for the intended public. But, that’s where the challenge begins because creating an artwork that resonates with the public while maintaining the integrity of a work of art can be a balancing act that can easily faulter. And that's where a good panel comes in...

"Yearling" by Donald Lipski was commissioned for an elementary school in a primarily Hispanic community in New York City but once the artwork was installed the community petitioned for its immediate removal. It turns out a dean from a nearby Yeshiva was successful in preventing the construction of the school for twenty years because he was quoted saying, "the [Hispanic] kids are animals".  To the community, the sculpture was a constant reminder  of those harsh words.  By all accounts this is considered a great work of art, lack of  proper community input made it a terrible public artwork for the community for which it was intended. The artwork was immediately removed.

where is this art going anyway?

There are three main artwork sites surrounding the Community Hub (Hub). Each of these site dictate how the artwork will be perceived and how the community interacts with them. The artists will have to consider each site and its appropriateness for their concept.

Site 1 indicated in blue, is the median along Churchill Avenue. This site is under the jurisdiction of Vic Roads and will require special coordination and permissions should an artist elect to use this site. Churchill Avenue curves slightly as it approaches the Hub so it provides a great way-finding opportunity both at this point and towards the main entrance of the Hub. Artworks on the median might be less likely be vandalized due to high visibility and limited pedestrian access.

Site 2 which is highlighted in red is located adjacent the parking lot. The largest  of all three sites, it can be seen from the street as well as from the new library of the Hub. This site lends itself to an installation with multiple pieces which can be spread out.  It is also be an opportunity for the artwork to visibly and physically activate this space.

Lastly, site three which is indicated in yellow is most integrated within the Hub's other facilities. a few meters away is the first of two community gardens and proposed children play area. This site is somewhat protected because of its vicinity to the Hub and lends itself to more intimate interaction. It's the only site not seen from the street.

Partial view of the median - site 1

Partial view of site 2

partial view of site 3

and it begins...a village in the making.

On one of the hottest days in Melbourne in recent history, shortlisted artists were inundated with information about Braybrook, the Community Hub and the community it's being built for.  This included a tour of the area surrounding the Hub, which is currently under construction and the proposed sites for the artwork. This information is to inspire works of art that will both enhance the surrounding environment and relate to the community in some way. Successful works will be so site-specific to Braybrook that if place anywhere else it will seen alien and out of place. 

Ari Indra presides over a tour of potential art sites and Hub facilities.