Danger Sign

The first time I was truly hurt by a work of Public Art, by any art for that matter, was the time I fell from the top of Henry Moore’s Reclining Woman outside Leeds City Art Gallery as a kid, I’m confident more than one toddler had got his head stuck between her thighs. As young teen’s we’d hang out by the piece, smoking and worrying whilst waiting for our appearances in the Magistrates Court next door for our liminal transgressions. Public Art occupying the same space as the police and the courts for those surviving on the margins of a culture that criminalises and prosecutes more transgressive forms of unsanctioned artistic expression. These portable warning signs are designed to be transported and erected at the sites of Public Art, acting as both literal and metaphoricall danger signs. If kids can’t climb on it, does public art have any utility at all, should it have? if it’s designed for kids to climb on, is it art or design? has this sculptur been rinsed through health and safety, shouldnt it have warning signs? what if a toddler got stuck in there? Just a few of the questions that keep the art committee awake at night.