On Friday, November 30th we hosted the latest installment of our Los Angeles salon series at the home of Kulapat Yantrasast, in which public art consultant Marc Pally and urban developer Yuval Bar-Zemer were invited to speak on public art, people, and urban development.
Accompanied by great food and drinks, guests enjoyed an active discussion brought about by the following points:
- Public artworks cannot be defined as any one particular thing or having any one particular effect; rather, it is utilized to achieve a variety of impacts and to facilitate different levels of community involvement, as can be illustrated by Tony Tasset’s Rainbow outside of Sony Studios in Los Angeles (artwork welcoming one into an environment/location), Anish Kapoor’s Cloud Gate (re-ignition of public activity in Chicago’s city center), Mierle Ukeles’ Meet Sanitation (long term project based on the commitment of relationships in New York City’s infrastructure), and Mel Chen’s Operation Pay Dirt and Fundred Dollar Bill Project (involving international communities to solve and bring awareness to local concern).
- The ability to alter one’s original perception of their own city is an added divided of urban redevelopment, and in order to successfully do so, one must preserve the integrity and historical legacy of existing buildings and communities in new developments (For instance, the David Echol National Biscuit Company building in Downtown Los Angeles)
- The importance of allowing the future tenants and owners of the development to imprint their own creative identity, and to encourage appreciation by not imprinting the developer’s specific design tastes onto their prospective dwellers.
Stay tuned for the next one!
