Corner of Pine and Kearny Streets
Leland Fletcher, Kearny St Project: Department of Art works (11.30am-continuing, 8th November 1977)
Geolocation
Description
The Department of Art Works constructs art on the streets in the same manner as other construction companies, though for different purposes. Leland Fletcher, responsible for a show consisting of many construction sites around San Francisco, feels the difference is the “art” part – the definition of a work as art or simply another construction. His sculptural pieces at various places such as Powell St. Station, Zellerbach Plaza, etc., resemble the more conventional construction areas – barriers, spray paint, patches of polyethene sheeting, “DEPT. OF ART WORKS” stenciled on the sidewalk – but with more surprising effects.
As art, they are his means of solving the problem of integrating art and everyday life.
The Department of Art Works serves to function as a means of confrontation by changing an area and defining that change in a unique and unusual manner. Fletcher’s choice of construction as his medium reflects the way society tends to relate to the earth – as a construction site, to be rearranged, built upon, and shaped to fit a view of the world and our place in it. (Anonymous 1976: 36; 72)
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