PUBLIC PUBLIC ART The vibrant, colorful artwork of Julia Vogl ’07 rests upon what she calls her manifesto: The artwork must respond to site or community, the artwork must involve or engage others, and the artwork must employ a strategy of décor. Her art contains many viewpoints besides her own—sometimes those of thousands of others. The materials listed for her 10
2018 installation in Boston, Pathways to Freedom, include “6,000 square feet of vinyl, audio, and 1,800 individual opinions about freedom and immigration.” Vogl aims to put the public back in public art. “This means I do time with the community or site to make art that residents have ownership over. I socially engage people in playful activities and
workshops and get them to share their story with me. I use their data, their story, their engagement to make large-scale visual works that illustrate the individual as well as the community simultaneously. I call this social sculpture.” The 1,800 discs in Pathways were originally emblem-like lapel pins that individuals made by answering four multiple choice
DAV E L A LLY, JULI A VO GL , NIR L A NDAU
Thought Process