I've always been a fan of inventive art projects that you can just stumble across while walking down the street. I'm not talking street vendors or portrait painters here, but rather those more rare occurances where someone has made a real effort to incorporate art in everyday life. A few examples:

A few years ago, a group of artists constructed a well in a regular town square. The well was made of stone and looked just like any other well, but when you looked down into it you were filmed by a videocamera. The resulting image was then projected onto a screen at the bottom of an identical well on the exact opposite side of Earth. The same thing happened in the other direction too, so if the well was located in, say, the US then people could look down into it and wave, which would immediately be seen by those looking down into the twin well in China, and they could then wave back! Just as if there had been a tunnel through the entire planet. Pretty cool, if you ask me. A bunch of these wells were made in different parts of the world. I wish they'd kept them.

When Sweden got its gold-coloured 10 kronor coin, an artist decided to produce a number of identical coins made of real gold! He released these into circulation and they were practically impossible to tell from the normal ones. I found it very interesting to know that I may have held one of the legendary gold coins in my hand and maybe used it to pay too without knowing it.

In Stockholm, I think it was during the Cultural Capital of the World year of 1998, a number of glass houses were built in random places all over the city. These houses were brightly lit up all day around, making them look quite surreal when you stumbled across them in an unexpected place. Also, a number of huge wooden thrones were placed here and there. If you would sit down on them, they were positioned so that you would get a view of things that you might not have paid attention to otherwise. They were really comfortable too. I remember sitting on them often and feeling like the king of the world.

I once saw a beautiful woman who had dressed up in lingerie and put herself in a cage on a town square. In the cage, she would crawl around on her hands and knees and growl and do other animal type things. The men that gathered around looked mesmerized by her beauty and sexuality, but also terribly awkward since they understood the point she was making about the objectification of the female sexuality. It was really interesting.

Have you seen any similar projects? Please share!

Edit: spelling
[Edited 6/21/05 12:44pm]

I quite like this:








"A 30ft sculpture to occupy Hampstead Heath during summer 2005 – a monument to the loneliness of writing 'The Writer' – a monumental sculpture by Italian artist Giancarlo Neri is to be installed on Parliament Hill Fields, Hampstead Heath from 22 June to 9 October 2005."

lleena i like that. i want to sit in it so bad . i like also that it really does convey 'the lonliness of writing', its like being in a world of your own...

Lleena said:

Cool!

I bet somebody will try to climb it. I probably would have even though I shouldn't. Just imagine having a picnic on that table...

i know the fountains at millenium park in chicago have been talked about before, but i think its nice how people can interact with it. its really nice and its fun when its hot and boring.

brownsugar said:

Yeah, that's exactly the type of thing I'm talking about!

It adds a spice to everyday life. We need more of that.

i saw a news item where a sculptor had placed her items in the sand and amongst the rocks at dozens of places around the coast of one of the eastern provinces... and i can't find anything on it now on google :sad;

but the gist of it is that no one knows where these pieces are and you would really have to be paying attention to your surroundings to notice a little rock like face amongst the sand and stones.

if you find one it has a website and tracing number on it - so you can go there and tell the story of how you came across it and the artist can see who has found her creations.

emm said:

I really like that idea! A reward for us who appreciate and pay attention to the details around us.



Wow, that makes it even more interesting! I bet the collection of stories will eventually constitute a piece of art in themselves.

Maybe she could have added extra spice to it by letting the locations light up on a map on the website as people found the art pieces and then eventually, these locations would form a pattern or an image.

Very cool thread. I wish I could contribute. San Jose is where people with no culture go to die.....just kidding.....sort of.


M

MIGUELGOMEZ said:

Oh come on now, it can't be that bad. The US has a larger number of cultures packed into its cities than any other country in the world. At least some of them must have something to offer? Maybe you have some cool graffiti at least? I once went around my home town taking pictures of graffiti for an exhibition that I was planning and I was surprised by how often the same names popped up over and over. These guys has sprayed their tags on the ceilings of subway tunnels, on bridges, on little electrical boxes way outside the city... Talk about a large scale art project.