Public Art in Thimphu, Bhutan

Brightly colored plastic bottle caps nailed to stumps line one side of a footpath and plastic bottles the other. Both the park and the public art in the picture here are the result of the work of Bhutanese artists affiliated with Voluntary Artists' Studio, Thimphu (VAST), a Bhutanese art NGO, for a public event and fundraiser commemorating the wedding anniversary of Bhutan's king in 2013. Like other forms of "public culture", the park and the art within it show the ways in which "art" as a global form becomes embedded in local meanings (1). Specifically, art in Bhutan is an important medium for working out questions of identity and what values ought to define public culture in Bhutan.

The park itself is a symbol of how the artists at VAST are part of a broader process of figuring out what it means to be a citizen in Bhutan's newly minted democracy. All other parks and public spaces in Thimphu were the work of the state, officially sanctioned. However, the art park was a response completely out of the initiative of the artists at VAST. After the trees in this section of the river bank were cut down, the artists adopted it, hoping to transform the ugly scar to a beautiful community space. The park was meant to create a space to display public art and provide community access to the river, and thereby, to nature.

In many ways, taking this act independently represents new, liberal values about independent thinking and individual responsibility or gyenkhu that are radically new in Bhutanese public culture. The artwork itself fashioned from plastic bottles and bottle caps is part of a broader project lead by one of VAST's founders, Kama Wangdi, who runs a competition to see who can collect the largest number of bottles for recycling. Both the artwork and the competition suggest that environmental issues are something individuals should take responsibility for.

At the same time, the image above shows how artists present themselves as properly Bhutanese. Policies of environmental protection have become an important part of national identity in Bhutan and form one of the key pillars of the official development ideology that emphasizes "Gross National Happiness" over Gross National Product. Likewise, the art park has deep ties to the monarchy. The tent in the background of this picture is part of an event commemorating the wedding anniversary of the fifth king. VAST also partnered with the royal-backed Tarayana Foundation to host the event pictured. Events like this are both acts of genuine patriotism and important way artists present themselves as part of the normal, moral expectations of Bhutanese national life. Since the transition to democracy in 2008, Bhutanese have had to figure out what it means to be Bhutanese and what values define public life. The art park is one example of what that negotiation can look like.

1) Appadurai, Arjun and Carol A. Breckenridge, "Why Public Culture?". Public Culture 1, no. 1 (1988): 5-9.

Commentary on Rachel Tanur's Works: NYC Cow Parade

As with the public art in Bhutan, public art in the United States has frequently been a site for debates about values. However, the debates around public art vary significantly depending on cultural context. In a social field intensely shaped by neoliberalism, Cow Parade has been a cipher in many ways to the ethical concerns created by capitalism. Tanur's photograph of Billy the Artist's entry to the Cow Parade in New York City in 2000 symbolizes the complex intersections of art, global capitalism, and public culture. Cow Parade began as a tourist even in Zurich in 1998, soon followed by an event in Chicago in 1999 (1). Today, Cow Parade bills itself as the "largest and most successful public art event in the world" (2). Although the claim is most likely as much marketing as fact, Cow Parade holds events across the world every year. For each event, the cows are sponsored by organizations or individuals and artists, both famous and unknown, are paid to paint a prefabricated cow in a grazing, laying, or standing position. The event pits economic value against notions of public good and the idea that art ought to be more than entertainment. Cities see these events as an important way to raise revenue and tourism. A clear example of the perceived economic importance of the "creative class" (3), Cow Parade and the cities that host it attempt to use art as an economic engine. One could argue in this way Cow Parade symbolizes the hegemony of the market over art and public life. The function of the figure of the artist (4) in Cow Parade seems to be as global brand, proof of the event's cool. Tanur's image, for example, is not of an unknown artist or community project, but the globally known Billy the Artist who has in later Cow Parade projects explicitly worked with Lamborghini. In response, cultural critics in cities that host Cow Parade often have reservations about the artistic virtue and lack of history or place embodied by the event. One critic complained about the New York show that the cows are especially inappropriate for New York. The cows, for example, are Swiss rather than American and New York, unlike Zurich or Chicago, has no real historical links cows (5). Tanur's photograph also suggests local response and resistance to the pictured cow. Easy to miss at first glance against the appealing bright colors, three large cow patties muddy the otherwise neat aesthetic of the concrete and fiberglass cow. Given that the dung does not appear in Billy the Artist's image of the cow (6), perhaps we can read it as an act of resistance. The excrement could be evidence that person who placed them wanted to draw attention to how power-cultural, political, economic, or otherwise-tries to hide its mess. 1) Hedges, Chris, "Is Nothing Sacred?; International Discontent Erupts Over a Cow Parade". The New York Times (New York), May 31, 2000 2) "Our Story", Cow Parade, accessed January 20, 2018. http://www.cowparade.com/our-story/ 3) Florida, Richard. The Rise of the Creative Class--Revisited: Revised and Expanded. Basic Books (AZ), 2014. 4) Foucault, Michel. "What is an Author?." Contributions in Philosophy 83 (2001): 9-22. 5) Boxer, Sarah, "Critic's Notebook: Cattle are Standin' like Statues; Isn't it Time to Put Those Fiberglass Visitors Out to Pasture?". The New York Times (New York), July, 12, 2000. 6) Billy the Artist, accessed January 20, 2018. http://billytheartist.com/projects/faohhut847hl0atchmef4ackkkieon