Art in public view is a flickr group set up by oddobjects. The group was started to “try and survey ‘art works’ in Scotland that are in public view” and hopes “to gather images, information, stories and anecdotes of old, contemporary, permanent or temporary art works in Scotland”.

Art in Public view invites people to “post photos of ‘art works’ found anywhere in Scotland, be it in the countryside, town or city” and if you know anything about the work to include that in the title or description. The ease of access to and use of images, makes the flickr group a potentially interesting resource. Images can be uploaded to flickr easily and instantaneously – oddobjects’ moblog, shows a growing body of photographs sent via mobile phone.

One worth seeking out in Art in public view, is the series of images of one of Douglas Gordon’s very early public works mute, commissioned as part of Sites/Positions in 1990, along with works by Christine Borland, Gillian Steel, Alison Marchant, Euan Sutherland and The Proliphic Pamphleteer. Seeing mute as it is now reminds us of the rich history of practice here in Scotland of artists at work in an enlarged “critical sphere” (Richardson, 1990:50). As the description accompanying the images suggests: “Coming across this is a wee bit like finding hidden treasure. This piece has become even more ‘mute’ with the passage of time”.

The group has an eclectic mix of images – as it should be – reflecting the range of works that a broader audience view as art in public.
Art in public view offers a method of gathering documentation that is generative and potentially – as the group grows – offers insight to ‘unknown’ works in diverse localities as well as a broader view of what and where art in public might be.

Note:

Art in public view has an excellent geo-tagging feature, which oddobjects and other contributors have used to geo-tag works, allowing you to view the precise location of the work – even offering directions to/from. if you want to find mute, click here

Craig Richardson’s 1990 review of Sites/Positions can be found and downloaded free, at Variant’s on-line archive, http://www.variant.randomstate.org/vol1/issue8.html