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Kristin Bly :: Environmental Media :: Bus Tour: Public Sculpture .
2002
     
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This action was performed in collaboration with Matt Distel during the Intermedia Series performance art festival at The Aronoff Center in Cincinnati, Ohio. Couched in theories of the Situationists, Bus Tour gave participants an in-depth city tour of Cincinnati's finest 'incidental' public sculpture. Seeking to encourage the notion that public art (and 'art' in general) can be assigned by simply pointing, the performance gave viewers a conceptual look at some everyday situational tableaus that were given the status of art via the tour guides.

Many of these works were footnoted as having been created by various established artists. These associations gave anecdotal context and subject matter for narrative historical fiction. As such, some of the stopping points were pre-determined in order to draw attention to an incident that coincidentally had the trappings of a particular artists oeuvre. For example, a long abandoned construction site that left an enormous mound of piled earth had an uncanny likeness to a Michael Heizer environmental sculpture, and was therefore discussed as such.

The bus was loaded at the Aronoff Center and drove a ten-mile loop around the outlying communities. During the route, the participants were given both pre-scripted content and spontaneous accounts of public works that happened to present themselves. The bus made several stops, and during driving times, the passengers were engaged with broader conversational opportunities about public art, art in daily living, and coincidence. At the end of the one-hour tour, people were given a pamphlet containing a vague trace of the route and a nearly illegible script of the guides' narrative. This gesture was meant to further entice the public to make their own art by observing, pointing, and discussing.

 
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