Abstract

Various combinations of the terms "public" and "art" circulate in news sources, gallery publications, art magazines, and theoretical texts. Within this area of art theory, criticism, and discussion, the designation public functions as a "discursive operator" (J. M. Berthelot) because similar assumptions about identity and belonging (particularly gender and sexuality) are central to, yet evaded within, its multiple uses. To address patterns of arguments as well as particular examples, I analyse discourses around the topics of public art, public-site art practice, public(s) for galleries or art projects, and public funding of the arts. My focus is on Canadian art events in relation to primarily Canadian and American art theory, criticism, and newspaper content. I draw on a variety of feminist, cultural, and political theories in order to analyse art theory in relation to art projects and in relation to other cultural forms. My approach and discussion has two significant levels: one, the dissertation produces a complex analysis of the imbrication of cultural identity and notions of public within representations and discourses that combine public and art; and two, my research process works with the notion of the archive (M. Foucault) and creates a methodology for the analysis of contemporary cultural events which cut across disciplinary and media boundaries.