April is the month when the biggest Public Artefact ever seen in Canberra is due to be announced. Before you ask yourself “Do I like it?” ask yourself “Is it art?”. This is a question the committee of experts have surely considered. If the Northbourne monument is to be with us in perpetuity, surely it will need to have the kind of enduring values we associate with a work of art? ArtWranglers will be asking ourselves the following questions, the kinds of things we expect of art, to see how it rates.

Does it have a story to tell me? What language is it speaking? Does it have a history? What sensual pleasures does it offer me? Does it tell me something new? Does it ask questions of itself? Does it move me? And then (based on the above): is it a work of art?

ArtWranglers wonders, what questions is the panel of experts asking? Hopefully, something like the above. And if the shortlisted works don’t provide answers to questions like these, we say: don’t buy it! Invite some real artists next time. Save us from another “Sculptural Marker“…