Adelaide City Council removes ‘cheeky’ and ‘subversive’ from public art policy

Adelaide City Council is cracking down on “cheeky” and “subversive” public art – instead favouring pieces that are “beautiful”. Here’s why.

Adelaide City Council has removed the words “cheeky” and “subversive” from its four-year public art plan, after a bizarre debate.

Central Ward councillor Jessy Khera, who has operated an art gallery in the city, proposed removing the words and replacing them with “beautiful” in the council’s Public Art Action Plan.

Mr Khera said the word subversive meant undermining – and that wasn’t what the council wanted in its art.

“Keep the words fun, playful, thought provoking and unexpected, but replace cheeky and subversive... with beautiful,” he told Tuesday night’s council meeting.

Lord Mayor Sandy Verschoor said she would be happy to see the word subversive dropped, but admitted that she liked the word cheeky.

South Ward councillor Alexander Hyde said “cheeky can be fun” but did not think the word needed to be explicitly mentioned in the plan.

“The combination of cheeky and subversive at the start, those are the values that we expect our public art to be aiming for, then I think that’s a negative start to the list,” he said.

“Public art should be something which is there to be enjoyed by the public.”

Would our famous Rundle Mall pigs be considered too cheeky? Picture: Supplied

What about the (ahem) Mall’s Balls (pictured here with former Lord Major Martin Haese)?

North Ward councillor Phillip Martin disagreed and said “conservative values are being imparted here”.

“Subversive art is at the core of good art,” he said.

“There would be no Banksy, there would be no one painting on a wall somewhere, a child frisking an armed soldier, there would be no painting of a fire and gun on the wall, that’s subversive art.

“Subversive is key to art, it means that it is contrary to public taste and public opinion but it has the power when it’s done well to change attitudes, to change perspectives.

“Art is subversive if it’s good, if it’s bad it’s generally beautiful.”

Mr Khera thought the assertion that artists ““aren’t capable of producing beautiful works” was “ridiculous”.

How would the Gawler Place pigeon fare? Picture: Tait Schmaal.

“That is so incredibly condescending towards artists,” he said.

“The idea that the huge range of art we’ve had that is historic and contemporary, all of which is incredibly beautiful, is all somehow cheap and useless.

“The problem here is that we’re talking about public art, and if you have the very first words in your public document ‘cheeky’ and ‘subversive’, you’re going to get the dogs cocking their legs on Melbourne Street,” Mr Khera said.

Elected members voted 4-3 in favour of replacing the words “cheeky” and “subversive” with “beautiful” in the Public Art Action Plan.

Councillors Helen Donovan, Keiran Snape and Anne Moran had left the chamber before the public art matter was debated.

The Advertiser has contacted Lord Mayor for comment, asking what the changes mean for current and future public art.

Originally published as Adelaide City Council removes ‘cheeky’ and ‘subversive’ from public art policy