Suzanne Lacy Response

The part that really got my mind thinking of art that I've recently seen was when Suzanne Lacy introduced the second diagram of how the artist-relationship revolution can be seen - specifically the circle representing "collaboration and codevelopment."

The idea of collaboration and codevelopment between artist and audience made me think of this sidewalk artist in New York City, Hani Shihada. This past summer I got to see him working on (he chose a sidewalk right around the corner from my family's apartment) a frighteningly lifelike portrait of the UK's former prime minister, Maggie Thatcher. When I first saw the finished work I wasn't sure if it was alright for me to walk over it since it just looked so gosh darn cool, but a few days later it dawned on me that it's a sidewalk...it's meant to be walked on. Within a week comments had been written around the portrait - most of them were short phrases critiquing Maggie Thatcher's political legacy. But that makes sense, most likely that would happen if you drew a portrait of a known political figure on a sidewalk. And it dawned on me that Shihada was probably very much aware of what would happen once his part of the work was done. He did his share of this public artwork and opened it up to the next phase, collaboration and codevelopment with the audience.

For some clever reason I decided to not take a picture of the Maggie Thatcher portrait, so I have no evidence, but click HERE and you'll get to his website. He has some pretty varied sidewalk work, worth taking a look at if you feel so inclined.

its a tiny pic, but you get the idea...