Ericson and Ziegler

"Art in the public interest forges direct intersections with social issues."
The quote was found in Miwon Kwon's One Place After Another on page 105. It says that public art, such as the projects found in Culture in Action, can tie into and bring light to certain social issues. One such project was Eminent Domain, done by Kate Ericson and Mel Ziegler (Kwon 102). The project consisted of color charts with different colors named after an issue with public housing in the Ogden Courts Apartments of Chicago (Kwon 122). Ericson and Ziegler said that "The chart would deal with some specifics about federall funded housing, demographics, etc. It would of course hopefully raise issues that are of concern to the tenants but it would also question the validity and morals of the suburbs which these charts often cater to" (Kwon 122). This public art project ties into social issues of housing with the names of the paint colors, such as HUD Cream, Homeless (which is sky blue), Scattered-Site Coral and FHA Gingerbread (Nesbitt). Because the paint charts were created by the residents, the ones who experience housing social issues such as problems with the FHA or being homeless, the project gave them a voice to raise awareness of the social issues. Their connection is direct, between the issues and the art, which is what public interest art is all about.


Kwon, Miwon. One Place After Another. Cambridge, Massachusetts:
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2002.

Nesbitt, Lois. "Kate Ericson and Mel Ziegler." Artforum International 32.n9
(May 1994): 104(1). Academic OneFile. Gale. Syracuse University
Library. 28 Oct. 2007 http://find.galegroup.com/itx/start.do?prodId=
AONE.