#thepeoplesstone
From mountain ranges to monoliths, stelae to milestones, naturally formed and hand-carved markers have been used as physical tools of reference, from gauging where we are, to saying how far we have to go, to communicating who has come before us. In contemporary times, carved stone forms are used less often, replaced by an increasing portable type-based language(s), fulfilling this function of practical and cultural, visual communication. Graffiti, one form of “marking” and mark making, also a tool for communication and artistic expression, can be argued to follow in this lineage: a name, an expression, a code and/or a message left to be received by another. These “signs,” are now placed on objects, instead of being of the objects, except where sculptural and/or public artworks bridge between the past and the present.
The artist Steven Barich—motivated by previous stone-inspired art works and the stoney landscape of Portugal, in context of the Fontelo parks own geology within an urban environment—with the art work The People’s Stone aims to juxtapose the monolithic plus artistic gesture with the signature “tag” or “throwie,” unique reference marks made in collaboration over time, during the POLDRA project exhibition. The sculpture, a human-size stele as public-participatory surface, will be installed as an reference-marker of where we are now, and aesthetically, stating who we are in this moment.
Below: recent images of the ongoing development/public interaction, of the piece The People’s Stone:
