For years and years (and years) it seemed that public art would never be able to achieve its prime directive, that being to entertain, wow, beguile, positively engage with the public, and try and take their minds of the wasted taxes. It's got better, the sad and depressing municipal crap that used to fill the centre of every new town and open air shopping has secretly been carted off to the local mayor's garden and a new demand for public art that takes risks is rising. I remember tons of bronze pieces as a kid, most seem to commemorate dead people, kind people and important people. The style for most of the 70s and early 80s in municipal Britain was supposedly expressionistic, or in other words, so badly sculpted you couldn't tell if they were abstracts, life studies or just an unhappy accident. Then there are the caring sharing family friendly pieces, usually carved from stone or set in concrete and featuring, you guessed it, a hard working family, strict devotees of the big society, almost always standing or sitting limp with the same demeanour of a blind boy collection box.
Nowadays things have improved (wildly in some cases), Milton Keynes have (almost) hidden away their incredibly depressing concrete cows from the public and probably bought some real ones by now, milk does taste better than concrete cancer. The North got their Angel of the North, which many complained about for years, until they all took a good look and realised it was bloody fantastic. Most town and city centres around the UK, Europe and the USA have upped their game with all sorts of experimental and funky pieces, some adored by the community, others less so. I'm not particularly a community-minded person, I buy what I can locally, I notice when shops shut down and houses are done up, I chat with the postie, but I'm not in the thick of it, if I thought that everyone else wanted a giant UFO on the beach I might be, but I am in a distinct minority here. Unlike these examples of public art to get your rocks off…
Detroit has now raised nearly $70 for a "giant solid metal permanent sculpture" of RoboCop, they have struck a deal with ironworks company Casey V. Westbrook to take a small figure of RoboCop, have it 3D scanned by lasers and scale its up to a 240cm tall statue. The money has been raised, the site allocated, and Detroit's greatest hero, fictional or otherwise, will have his day. Keep up with the progress at www.detroitneedsrobocop.com.
It's mad, it's bad, it's supposedly full-sized and it will probably never happen, but I would love to live in a world where public art is truly for the public, no matter what the critics say. They have 75 "likes' on Facebook and a Tumblr page, although they people behind the AT-AT campaign might not be the most savvy of social networkers, they have got their project on they telly.
Give 'em a chance though, they've only been at it a couple of months, even the big Aussie news site www.news.com.au. If they do manage to get it made they should put in Battery Park next to the Statue of Liberty, there's some homeland security for ya.
Seeing as this post has taken a rather geeky sci-fi turn here's one more giant robot courtesy of the Gundam Project in Japan… yep it's recycled too!
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