I probably would have given a double-take if I was able to see myself wheeling around large frames through campus Friday afternoon. Some people complained about the "construction" obstructing their pathway to the next class (strange though, there are many pathways in the Arts quad that one could take...). Some gleefully skipped through the frames, some snapped pictures on their cell phones, others simply walked by unfazed by the obstructing frames. Generally, people walked through them if they were with friends, apparently it's a lot of fun. The vast majority of people walked around the frames. I suppose I would as well, you never know what they could be and walking through them might offend or piss someone off. Many understood it as a work of art, and I received some compliments, but mostly from fellow artists who appreciate the merit of altering habitual, routine habits with fanciful frames (painters seemed to like the frames)

I don't think public art should ever be permanent. Sometimes it becomes an integral aspect of the environment, but then it tends to be overlooked. Site-specific art work is unusual because on one hand, the art highlights the attributes of the site. On the other hand, because it is so well incorporated into the site, it eventually (or immediately) lacks novelty. What makes the art so unusual that people want to stop and look? Mobile frames don't fit into the landscape of SUNY New Paltz. They certainly stopped people, altered there thought process for even a few seconds to decide whether or not to walk through or around the frames. Altering and influencing someone's routine habits was an interesting aspect.

Maybe the lawsuit against Richard Serra for Tilted Arc has some merit to it. As artists, there's a natural tendency to want to preserve a work of art like Serra's, defend art against the uncultured masses! Well, most people would find Tilted Arc just a nuance on their way to work. The work wouldn't have it legendary status if not, ironically, for the lawsuit. Wouldn't it eventually lose it's novelty, and eventually sealed away in the cache of art history?