Taking my bunting out to the public

I was really apprehensive as I had never displayed my work in an open, public area. I was concerned about how it would look, the response I would get and whether anyone would object to me setting it up. After putting the bunting up on the four posts and taking some images, I was approached by a police officer, who told me to take it down . I felt really disappointed as I did not get enough time to see if people would walk into the space and interact the way I had hoped. I had also planned to film the experience and the public's response. However, after studying the images I had managed to take , I do feel that the bunting alone works as a piece of art. I had created my own situation, an attempt at rejuvenating interaction , yet the space was empty and I feel this is extremely poignant and ironic.

 

Experimenting with public art has been quite a nerve racking, yet beneficial experience because I feel I have developed as an artist. Despite feeling disheartened after being made to take my bunting down, I felt liberated that I had taken on such a challenging and different approach with my work. I also do not want to let this single experience put me off and therefore, I intend to try and get my bunting displayed again and continue with my plans to film the viewers response.

As this project was so far removed from the art I am used to, at times I did question which aspects of this project could be classed as Art, if any at all. For example, could it be the documentation, the bunting itself ,the interaction between people or, in this case, the lack of?

Rirkrit Tiravanija states, ' It is not what you see that is important, but what takes place between people'. This quote is something I need to consider very carefully as I feel, I need to decide if I am happy to compromise the visual quality of my work in favour of relational aesthetics.

Below are some images of the bunting displayed on The Moor. I only had a limited time to take the images due to being moved on by the police.