This panel examines how we might think through the operative terms of"public" and"art" and consider their critical relationship in our contemporary context. Even as public art becomes a recognisable genre, equated with the placement of artworks in public sites and with the enhancement and beautification of these spaces, artists are equally interested in considering publicness as a social practice and mobilising other key terms into the equation. These include audience, relationships, communication, and site-specificity. They also place critical questions of contestations and erasures—the violent underside of public spaces—at the heart of their inquiries. How might we consider the dialogic nature of public art and the collaborative aspect of working through these complexities? What can we offer to each other in terms of publicness?
