What led you here?
Author Identifier (ORCID)
Research Statement
Research Background
Adams was invited by Main Roads WA (MRWA) to create a public artwork for the Wanneroo Road/Joondalup Drive Interchange Project prior to appointing a construction company. On appointment of CPB construction (CPB), Adams consulted throughout the project with all stakeholders: MRWA, CPB and their contractors (lighting experts etc.), St Stephens School, and the Community Reference Group (CRG). Adams created one public art component located under the bridge on the east abutment wall across a span of 19m wide and 6.9m high.
Research Contribution
This public artwork is site specific-driven/ridden/walked through rather than a destination—designed for and responsive to the site through scale, material, form, concept and community consultation. Questions asked of projects such as these and public art in general are about making significant relationships between community, industry, and the art world: is public art efficient as an effective transformative bridge in this context that might address for a broad range of the general public; cultural, economic, and environmental issues? Artists ask these questions in relation to site specific works of art by inviting community consultation which makes the work valuable to the community (involving schools for example). In this context there are, ‘several problems in the advocacy of public art as social good: the exclusivity of taste; the lack of specificity of the public(s) for whom it is intended, and the transcendent aesthetics of modernism which separates art from life’ (Miles, 1997). Artists do however facilitate the process of inquiry and of urban renewal-contributing to scholarship surrounding constructing artworks anchored to the publics they are created for.
Research Significance
A conference publication was written about the project: Adams, L., See, H., & Bell, F. (2019). Public Arts: The academy engaging with Main Roads WA, industry and community. The project was funded by MRWA-$42,283.
Non-Traditional Research Output
Original Creative Work
Document Type
Non-Traditional Research Output
Date of Publication
2020
Medium
powder coated aluminium
Dimensions
19m x 16.9m
Publisher
Main Roads Western Australia
School
School of Arts and Humanities / Centre for Research in Entertainment, Arts, Technology, Education and Communications
Size
19m x 16.9m
RAS ID
32904
Event Venue
Wanneroo Road/Joondalup Drive Interchange
Comments
Adams, L. (2020). What led you here? [powder coated aluminium]. Wanneroo Road/Joondalup Drive Interchange.