Cai Guo-Qiang and Public Art

Recently I have been reading a new book, 我是這樣想的, by 楊照 and 李維菁 on the artist Cai Guo-Qiang . The book is sort of a collection of Cai's stories about his life, works, and ideas.

I am particularly struck by his thoughts on public art in the following passage in the book:

蔡國強最討厭的是公共藝術，他說當你為一個場地完成一塊石頭 (公共藝術)，那個場地因為這塊石頭改變，讓很多人來了。然後，路燈，指示牌，紅綠燈等亂七八糟的東西又逐漸把石頭給淹了，根本喪失了原先的設計理念與氣息。你看著它變成一塊爛石頭，石頭上面還掛著大牌子烙著你的名字! "但你能說什麼？你已經把它賣出去了。"

Cai, welcome to architecture, welcome to my world.