Public Art and the Construction of Community: the Making of Meanings
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Public Art and the Construction of Community: The Making of Meanings Thesis submitted in accordance with the requirements of the University of Liverpool for the degree of Doctor in Philosophy by Gillian Floyd March 2016 Abstract This study explores the ways in which public art contributes to the creation of (geographical) community identity. More specifically, it investigates the meanings people assign to works of public art and the origins of those meanings. This is achieved through the medium of semi-structured interviews with people involved in either the production or consumption of three works of public art based in the Merseyside area: Superlambanana (Liverpool), Another Place (Crosby / Sefton) and Dream (St Helens). The findings from the study are three-fold. Firstly, they reveal the structural power disparities between the various parties involved in the creation of the artworks, particularly between the aesthetically influential members of the artistic network and members of the public. Secondly, they illustrate the importance of place in the interpretation of the meaning of the artworks and, thirdly, the findings show that members of the public interact with and experience the artworks in a variety of ways which, in turn, shape the ways in which they relate to the artwork. Overall, the results of the research illustrate the three-way interrelationship between (i) the artwork, (ii) the place in which the artwork is located, and (iii) the people who live in the place in which the artwork is located. All three should therefore be taken into account when considering a work of public art, particularly in the context of a work of public art that is intended to symbolise a geographical community. From a theoretical point of view, this means exploring the different ways in which people interact with and give meaning to a work of public art; from a social policy point of view, this means downplaying the prospective economic outcomes of a work of public art in favour of integrating the artwork into people’s everyday lives. i Contents Acknowledgements iv List of Pictures v List of Tables vi Chapter 1: Introduction 2 1.1 Background to the Study, Theoretical Concerns and My Approach 2 1.2 The Case Studies 4 1.2.1 Superlambanana 5 1.2.2 Another Place 8 1.2.3 Dream 9 1.3 Main Argument and Structure of Thesis 12 Chapter 2: Sociological Theory of Art, Culture and Public Art 17 Introduction 17 2.1 Sociological Theories of Art, Culture and Public Art 17 2.1.1Theories of Social Structure 18 2.1.2 Theories of Meaning 23 2.2 The Specifics of Public Art 34 Introduction 34 2.2.1 The ‘Publicness’ of Public Art 34 Discussion and Conclusion 45 Chapter 3: British Cultural Policy: An Overview 49 Introduction 49 3.1 British Cultural Policy 1979-1997 49 3.2 British Cultural Policy 1997-2010 52 3.3 British Cultural policy 2010-2014 62 Conclusion 63 Chapter 4: Methodology 67 Introduction 67 4.1 The Grounded Theory Approach 67 4.2 Data Collection 71 4.2.1 Semi-structured Interviews 71 4.3 Data Analysis 78 4.3.1 The Grounded Theory Approach 68 4.3.2 My Approach 78 Conclusion 85 Chapter 5: Theme 1: Power Relationships and Role Dynamics 88 Introduction 88 5.1 The Public 89 5.2 The Art World 98 Conclusion 105 Chapter 6: Theme 2: Meaning and Interpretation 109 Introduction 109 ii 6.1 Symbolism 109 6.1.1 The Symbolic Qualities of Public Art 109 6.2 Meanings 116 6.2.1 The Art World 116 6.2.2 The Public 124 Conclusion 135 Chapter 7: Theme 3: People and Places 139 Introduction 139 7.1 Place 139 7.2 People 152 Conclusion 163 Chapter 8: Discussion of Key Findings 172 Introduction 172 8.1 The Importance of Place 173 8.2 The Concept of ‘the Public’ and the Role of Public Participation 177 8.3 Public Art as ‘The Other’ 182 Conclusion 186 Chapter 9: Conclusion 189 9.1 Findings and Overall Argument of the Research 189 9.2 Theoretical Implications of the Study 193 9.3 Implications for Social Policy 194 9.4 Strengths and Limitations of the Study 196 9.5 Recommendations for Further Research 197 9.6 Reflections as a Researcher in the Field 198 Bibliography 201 Appendices 217 Appendix1: Interview Questions 218 Appendix 2: Node Structures 225 iii Acknowledgements My many and sincere thanks go to my supervisors, Dr Paul Jones and Professor Gabe Mythen, for their support and guidance throughout the duration of the research and thesis-writing process. They gave me constructive criticism when I needed it, while at the same time allowing me to go my own academic way. An excellent combination. I would also like to thank Professor Barry Goldson and Professor Malcolm Miles for a most enjoyable viva. I dedicate this thesis to my parents, whose enduring love for and belief in me makes me the person I am today. This is as much their thesis as it is mine. I also dedicate it to my brother, Andrew, who kept me from going too far in my flights of artistic-academic fancy with regular doses of darts, Doctor Who and fish and chips. iv List of Pictures Picture 1: Superlambanana 7 Picture 2: Another Place 9 Picture 3: Dream 12 Pictures 4-11: Examples of various Superlambananas 167-170 v List of Tables Table 1: Transcription Codes 77 Table 2: Data Coding 83 vi Chapter 1 Introduction 1 Chapter 1 Introduction Specifically commissioned pieces of art can contribute to local distinctiveness and help create a sense of place. (DCMS, 2004: 24) 1.1 Background to the Study, Theoretical Concerns and My Approach From the late Nineteenth century to the early Twentieth century, public art in the form of statues and memorials proliferated in cities throughout Europe and North America (Osborne, 2001: 12; Cherry, 2006: 683; Miles, 2011: 348). Such bronze and marble artefacts not only commemorated specific people (usually men of distinction) or specific events (such as wars); they also served to symbolise a collective identity and set of values for the people of the nation states in which they are situated (Osborne, 2001: 40; Miles, 2011: 352). However, over time, the people and events represented by such statuary have largely been forgotten, whilst the symbolic use of public art itself has changed. Rather than being utilized to represent an entire nation, public art has in latter years become a means of symbolising a more localised, smaller-scale identity. This shift in the symbolic focus of public art has occurred with the change in the prevailing Western socio-economic climate, which has seen the decline in the industrial and manufacturing sectors. In order to ‘plug the gap’, therefore, public art – and culture generally – has become a means of contributing to urban regeneration (Hall and Robertson, 2001: 5) in terms of helping to fashion a city’s identity (Pollock and Sharp, 2007: 1061). On an economic level such “local distinctiveness” (see above quote) can be marketed as a ‘brand’ (Newbigin, 2011: 232), which therefore ensures one city’s competitiveness in relation to others (Pollock and Sharp, 2007: 1061) in terms of attracting tourists, external investment and so forth. On a social level, the shared identity and history established by a work of public art can enable social cohesion and inclusion in areas which are seen to lack such qualities (Hall and Robertson, 2001: 10). Alternatively, the participation of local people in cultural or ‘creative’ activity is also seen as a means by which greater social cohesion and inclusion can be established (Connolly, 2013: 168). 2 The overarching subject of this thesis, therefore, is public art and the role of public art in the shaping of community identity. More specifically, the meanings people give to public art are under scrutiny, starting from the meanings assigned to a work of public art during its creation to those meanings the same artwork assumes once it is situated in public space. In order to examine these meanings, the following research questions were formulated: What are the meanings that are assigned to a work of public art and who assigns them? What is the role of ‘the public’ in influencing the meaning(s) associated with a work of public art? In order to answer the above questions, I selected three large-scale public artworks in the Merseyside area (Superlambanana, Another Place and Dream) and conducted a number of semi-structured interviews with participants who (i) were involved in the creation processes of each artwork or (ii) lived locally to each of the artworks. I subsequently transcribed the interviews and coded them using NVivo software, employing a grounded theory approach (Glaser and Strauss, 1968; Corbin and Strauss, 2008, et al) to analyse the data into three main themes, which themselves constitute the three data analysis chapters. By undertaking a comparative study of three works of public art and the meaning- making processes surrounding their creation and installation in their respective locations, my research contributes to prevailing socio-cultural knowledge concerning public art in particular and culture generally. Furthermore, in tracing the symbolic evolution of the above works of art, my study unites the two main theoretical aspects of art and culture: i.e. that of social structure and that of meaning (Blau, 1988: 286) and examines how the former influences the latter. Those theories that can be classified as being in the ‘social structure’ category include those of Becker, whose theory pertaining to ‘art worlds’ (2008, 1982) discusses the collective nature of artistic production. Similarly, Bourdieu (1993) argues that culture is a collective concern.