I have done a lot of research on Public Realm Art Projects and believe that Modernist Scuplture by claiming public space as museological space not only disrupted an established sense of place but demanded that the space be handled differently. Public squares that functioned as meeting places or short cuts through the city were reframed as spaces for stillness and introspection.
With my Sculpture "Great Deeds Against the Dead" I am trying to investigate a new kind of Public Sculpture that is enhanced by the viewers participation. The sculpture subverts the passive role required by an art object, by using three black punch bags hung from trees around Hyde Park.
The title references the infamous etching by Franciso Goya, of mutilated remains documented during the Spanish Peninsular War. I hope that the sculpture can become part of it's surroundings, rather than denying them by allowing the participants to enter into the Psychic drama and physically engage with Goya’s scenes of man’s inhumanity to man.
