Going public

We’ve given public sculpture some stick over the years but so much of it panders to local councils or just plain gets in the way that it’s hard to hold back. So here, to redress the balance, and on what looks like becoming Richard Serra day, is a great description on what public sculpture can achieve from Serra himself.

“I don’t think public sculpture is going to change the world, but I do think it might be a catalyst for thought. To see is to think and to think is to see. If you can change someone’s way of seeing, you might change their way of thinking. That will be impossible if works don’t exist in public spaces. Work does not have to be unanimously accepted and liked and it doesn’t necessarily have to be great. Even with failures the fact of their existence creates a chance for changing thought and attitudes.”
Richard Serra in conversation with Kynaston McShine