Lota Environmental Sculpture Project, Brisbane
The discourses of art criticism can be problematic when discussing the complexities of public art practice, particularly when this practice is located within a community arts context. With the focus of community arts projects frequently directed toward the collaborative process, the perceived aesthetic merit of the public art product often is critically viewed in terms of a compromise, or not critically reviewed at all. However, when the challenges of public art projects are successfully met, the outcomes can be doubly rewarding, culminating in the cultural enrichment and empowerment of the community in which it was created, and in the production of a public work of art which retains an aesthetic integrity and which, at a glance, encapsulates the spirit of its environs.
The potential for public art not just to adhere to a cultural agenda but also to fulfil a sociopolitical function can be evidenced in undertakings such as the Lata Environmental Sculpture Project, in which community interaction through collaborative art activities worked concomitantly with advocacy for local environmental issues.
Initiated by Mudflat Arts Incorporated, a multiarts organisation based on Brisbane's bayside, the Lata Environmental Sculpture Project was conceived at the vanguard of public discourse on the future of the Lata foreshore and river mouth habitats. Mudflat Arts was established in 1988 and, during its brief history, has been proactive in addressing community and environmental issues through its links with the Bayside Action Group (which has successfully opposed undesirable industrial development in the area) and the Bayside Environmental Network, and through its arts programme which has included an environment performance project, Clear as Mud, mural projects, and continuous participation in local events. Mudflat Arts operates in the suburbs of Wynnum