This isn't political, but it is about public space. Brisbane's had a cool project in recent years where the council supports artists painting traffic signal boxes. This is complemented by annotations on the web, including on flickr.

You could say this is just mainstreaming graffiti, and I guess it is, but it's also recognising graffiti wasn't just about defacement, but rather a revival and renewal of earlier traditions of public art.

Biopolitics is consumed with the notion of political power becoming sovereign over all aspects of human life. This includes what we know as the nanny-state, such as health care, but also police states. An important aspect of the subjugation of human individual and social life is the threat of government violence to protect rather than destroy.

As American constitutional jurisprudence has recognised with the First Amendment, the threat of government power or scrutiny is enough to suspend liberty, such that populations are subjugated through self-regulation.

So what does that mean for artists like Bill Henson who has photographed teens outside of the accepted consumer marketplace of selling semi-sexualised teens?

Artists often occupy a place in the social polis that kids do in the familial environment, pushing at the edge and fringes of what is acceptable and what isn't; forcing reflection on our attitudes and beliefs.

For instance the Boudist writes:

I'm not sure what to think. It's quite clear Bill Henson is a renowned art photographer, not some shameless pornographer. I believe neither he nor the gallery intend to exploit children or that the images are indecent. Yet it's an obviously provocative thing to do. The images are creepy. And anything that exploits or sexualises children is repellent.

Regardless, the work has succeeded in a way much of the best art does. It's provoked an emotional reaction, got people talking and asked more questions than it answers.

But can these issues be resolved without the application of biopower? The liberty of self-governance of polis debate - al-la Australian Republicanism - demands that it is. This requires the debate to be in the public and social realm no t the political application of subjugation and intimidation.

Images and collections like these can be condemned publicly, socially and in the polis such that there is real backlash; like the commercial failure of Henson's art, like social alienation for treading in that area.

It does not require the threat and imposition of a political power to curtail what should be dealt with in the public and social realm by the polis.

An example of one of Kenna's simple, serene and contemplative landscapes. More at Junk for Code.

Phoenix has a strong modernist and contemporary streak to it. Most of the public spaces have extra care and attention payed to little details such as making things look good/arty. Architecturally rusted metal has become popular in Phoenix.

McDowell Library from my photostream

It is pretty simple. Metal is put up and left to rust. For the terminally impatient pre-rusted metal can be bought for great cost. It comes through in a wonderful orange color though I am yet to convinced that it isn't treated to make it oxidise (rust) in a certain way.

We are thinking of doing it for the front of the house. Thankfully the older suburbs in Arizona do not have HOAs [Home Owner Associations] so people can express themselves fully with their houses. There are some calamities but for the most part people update them in a modern and contemporary style.

Paper chairs by Junya Ishigami. Via rolu design. I really like this image.

We went last night to the opening of the faces exhibition. It was a strong display with a lot of interesting work. The image above is one of John Tuomisto Bell's artworks.

In the sculpture garden John had several large bronze heads on display. He said enjoyed watching the kids interact with the arwork as they basically jumped on the heads and stuck their fingers in the sculpture's eyes and nostrils. The parents were horrified of course, and quickly told their kids to get off, but John enjoyed how the kids did not have any inhibitions or respect and it enabled them to appreciate the work in a different way to adults.

Another display had the eyes and eyebrows of every American sketched out in charcoal. However, mixed in amongst there was the eyes and eyebrows of Adolf Hitler. A nice statement of American politics especially recently as the current President has been accused of being everything from a Nazi, to a Socialist, to a Communist and the resurrection of Hitler. It was impossible to pick out the eyebrows of Hitler and when we left a couple of people were still asking the artist, "This one?"

Update More pics

We went to John Tuomisto Bell's exhibition at Kitchen Sink Studios as part of the 3rd Friday's Art Detour. The display was called the Unstable Group.

There was some very cool stuff there, including a new piece that was in iron. It was rusted well and suited the Phoenix style use of Corten in architecture perfectly. It was a series of iron heads, about the size of a male fist, that were mounted on iron poles about five feet tall. In essence they were a like a large wind chime. It was wonderful.

John mainly works in brass/bronze and most of the pieces were of that nature. The photo above is of a piece that is about nine foot long with symmetrical figurines on it. This photo captures one of the figurines expression really well.

We went to a Mayme Kratz exhibition at the Lisa Sette Gallery recently. Her art is a series of acrylic layers in soft colors that have organic material embedded deeply within them. The material either glows through or is cut such that is it shows in sharp relief. They are very soft, pleasant and quite beautiful artworks.

We went to a Bob Carey exhibition at the Bokeh Gallery. Carey's photos were of him leaping around New York and Brooklyn in a pink tutu. Some of the photos are humorous, some absurd, but all are very colorful and eye catching. It was well worth seeing.

The blurb to the show said that he has had some interesting situations while photographing himself; such as being asked to leave a park as school was about to exit and posing for photographs with police. I guess a middle aged and overweight guy in a pink tutu will draw attention to himself. Bob Carey has a blog where he posts his daily images.