Ars: časopis Ústavu Dejín Umenia Slovenskej Akadémie Vied (43.2010)

4. GrA^ Píz??Ah.' 200A. PAht* Go^^jy o/' G. P^7?4A.

the concept of democracy. Arguing that the term
public has démocratie connotations, Deutsche further
theorizes that democracy is Dii of inherent difhculties.
The locus of power rests in the people but it does
not belong to them. Democracy invents public space
so as to keep power centralized with those private
interests that bind the market economyA She com-
ments: "D/fnwm? gwMf A o%/y o/'
<?b 7/?^ 7orw A^^ JA^^ woro ob
Ary? Ay/^o^ryT'^Following Deutsche, the invocation

and theorizahon of public art practices within a démo-
cratie nation-state, such as Canada, is inherently and
publicly ideological. Art in the public is then celebra-
tory of the peoples of a given society, a démocratie
society that activâtes itself through an unnamable
public spectacle dehned by private interests.
Hilda Hein argues: "AAZ7 P
rort/Fyg 7o o/
/&oryP^ Her understanding follows a dichotomous
relationship between modernism and post-modern-
ism, where the modem artist active in the public
self-afhrms his or her own private individuality. In
contrast, she argues that the tribal or public artist re-
hects the culture of his or her community. For Hein,
contemporary public art must interrogate notions of
site-specihcity, ephemerality, communitarianism and
operáte within the vernacular, or everyday. The eve-
ryday aspect of public art practices créâtes an active
spectator that is within the constitution of the work
itself. The rôle of public art is to escape its private
confinement and AA? 7bo jfmTr /wn? ^4
rorA/w /ApAfí' A A<? While I do not
expressly agréé with the idealization nor utopie ideal
presented through the connotation of the primitive,
I do find merit in the comment that the public artist
rehects the culture of their community.
The above provides a segue that allows for the
incorporation of Street, graffiti, and post-graffiti art
practices and how they further develop the theo-
retical problematic. Hein's invocation of the public
realm is well suited, because it inherendy brings to the
forefront the compétitive and hierarchical nature of
most Street, grafhti, and post-graffiti practices. Anna
Waclawek, in her recent doctoral dissertation on
post-graffiti and Street art practices, comments: "TA
A/y Atpb At ^ roy?y?%7?Z/y AjpA&r A<?
pb ^ A, h ??o7 o??/y ob Ao
2W7-A AtÆ b^/7 tt/to yôr %o/ A-

DEUTSCHE, R.: EyAzAvHHiZ^J/AM/PoAPr. Cambridge
(Mass.) 1996, pp. 272-273.
DEUTSCHE, R.: The Question of "Public Space". Paper
presented at the A PAAgTupfl AU-
Aw/ GrďJ%ď/ř (1998). Available from http://www.
thephotographyinstitute.org/journals /1998/rosalyn_deut-
sche.html.

HEIN, H.: What is Public Art: Time, Place, and Meaning.
In: PA/AřTM/ A AD/AA íz/AAD GAAr^?, 54, Winter 1996,
No. 1, pp. 1-7, particularly p. 4.
^ Ibidem, pp. 2-5.
^ WACLAWEK, A.: tA Cýy [Ph.D. Diss.] Mont-
réal : Concordia University, 2009, p. 13.

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