The political difference of public art: exploring contested murals in Vancouver’s Chinatown

Abstract

This article outlines the political underpinnings of public art in historically marginalized neighbourhoods. It challenges celebratory and ‘positive’ notions of public art towards a more conflict-attuned conceptualization of the manifold tensions within public art. It proposes the conceptual framework of the political difference of public art to study the multiplicity of conflicts emerging around the production of art in public space, for example, between policymakers and artists. By interconnecting political theories of conflict with public art, the article discusses the empirical case of downtown Chinatown in Vancouver, BC, Canada, and four commissioned artworks placed in its public realm in 2019. The politics of public art revolve around the administrative goals and management practices that govern public art, aiming to produce consensus, cohesion and order. The political of public art, by contrast, inscribes itself into urban space via unregulated creative articulations. This article unpacks the implicit and explicit differences between artists, policymakers, planners and community organizers, and offers a unique conflict-theoretical framework for public art. This conceptual framework helps to nuance an understanding of both public art and public space as contested within conflict-laden urban politics of belonging, inclusion and identity.

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