Ruairi O'Cuiv

The first presentation we had was from Dublin City Council Public Arts Commissioner, Ruairi O’Cuiv. This presentation in particular I found most helpful to me and my practice and in this I wanted to make note of the particular points. He started by saying that, ‘if your applying for a public artwork commission, don’t just do it for the sake of it, do it because you feel you have something to give to the brief’. I found this point valuable in relation to my own practice as I always find myself doing things just to satisfy the brief, however after hearing this I found that if I took the time to apply myself and make the brief work for me, I could get more out of it and not let if run out of steam so quickly.

The presentation also allowed me to view different ways, I as an artist could work not only for public at commissions but also in my general practice. Some of the examples I found of particular interest were, artists who work with the participation of other artists, artists who involve members of a locality that they are making the work on and lastly the obvious one, artists who work solely on their own. At the moment working as a lone artist is the general norm in the college environment, but by introducing other artists to the work or by involving people with the specific skill sets or knowledge/understanding of a site could also greatly benefit a work.

He also went into detail about how as an artist you would go about completing a brief. To my surprise the main point was to keep it simple. He gave two examples of how keeping things simple and greatly benefit a proposal. The first example being about an artist who successfully got a commission by basically submitting her proposal on a single sheet of paper. Although only on a single sheet of paper, she outlined and summed up her idea simply but effectively. The second, being about a public artwork proposal board for a local community. On the board they had two members of the locality so as to give them more input in the selection of the piece but when the artists were proposing their ideas, their use of art ‘jargon’ lead the two public members of the panel to feel somewhat inferior and uncomfortable. This again is another point I will be putting into use in my own practice as I feel at the moment I tend to ramble on when trying to explain and get an idea across only to find when I finished that I have complicated it too much and left my audience confused and still none the wiser as to what I am trying to do.  By simplifying my ideas or how I explain them, I could make an idea more accessible to the viewer.

This presentation to me was the most beneficial as it allowed me to understand how the public art world works and also lead me to understand simplifying in some cases might be the better option.