• Streaming online August 28 at 17:00

Landscapes was a programme of talks, films and presentations, devised by artist Perry Roberts with producer and curator Sam Watson, dedicated to showcasing and discussing internationally significant new forms of public art.

The primary aims of the programme were:

• To expand ideas about what, where and when public art takes place, thereby encouraging public engagement with a broader, more challenging set of art experiences outside galleries and museums, in the open air and online spaces;

• To change the current perception amongst artists and curators that the public realm is a place in which creativity is curtailed by offering insight into the ways in which experimental art practices can survive outside galleries.

Documentation of the weekend itself and the works presented and discussed will form a collaboratively produced artist multiple which will be freely distributed across the city. 

The face of public art is changing. In recent years, a new generation of artists have rejected the monumental scale and mass appeal of conventional public sculpture, instead favouring unconventional forms that disrupt rather than embellish a particular location. Landscapes is the first survey of the work in all its varying forms of the past three decades by artist Perry Roberts that are contributing to the redefining of the practice of public art today. Some 20 key projects from around the world are highlighted, with detailed descriptions and installation and process shots. Interviews and quotes from commissioners and public commentators reveal the context and the publics' interpretation for each project, while an introduction sets out the conceptual, practical and ethical issues raised by the work. This dynamic combination of projects, places and people utilising multiple forms of presentation and communication is both an important resource for art-world specialists and an accessible introduction to the subject.  

Perry Roberts was born in 1954 in Newcastle, UK  and lives and works in Antwerp, Belgium since 1995.
Key works have recently been acquired by the MHKA Museum of Contemporary Arts Antwerp and in 2021 Roberts will take up position of Visiting Lecturer at The Royal Academy of Fine Arts Antwerp.