contact details
email: slacy@otis.edu

web site:
www.workinginpublicseminars.org
www.ontheedgeresearch.org
www.suzannelacy.com

Prof SUZANNE LACY (Visiting Professor, RGU)
Chair, MFA Public Practice, Otis College of Art and Design, Los Angeles, California, USA

Biographical Statement
Suzanne Lacy is an internationally renowned artist and critical writer in the field of social practice. She is editor of the seminal text Mapping the Terrain: New Genre Public Art  (1995, Bay Press, Washington), and has published extensively on issues of performance art that is both socially and politically engaged. Recent work includes ‘Stories of Work and Survival: sharing a meal with a public intimacy’ - an invited performance and installation for the ‘WACK! Art and the Feminist Revolution' exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles (2007).

Suzanne is currently Visiting Professor at Gray’s School of Art, funded by the Henry Moore Foundation and the Robert Gordon University.

Her work for over ten years (1990-2000) in Oakland, California (see below) is the key case study in ‘Working in Public’, initiated by On the Edge (Professor Anne Douglas) and supported by the Scottish Arts Council.

Personal Statement
I am currently registered with RGU for a PhD by Public Output (supervised by Anne Douglas and Grant Kester, University of California San Diego). My thesis titled ‘Imperfect Art: Interrogating the Oakland Projects’ is a critical analysis of ten years of projects focusing on the theme of youth that resulted in a series of performances. I hope to arrive at a convincing argument – namely that the complex narratives in the artwork provide the authentic vehicle through which to assess the work. My thesis not only questions the separation of maker from critic, but in complicating public art criticism with ‘the messiness of life’ (as described by Allan Kaprow in his exploration of “life-like art”) we arrive at a deeper understanding of how such works are Art, and why they do not fit current understandings of “art-like” art: that is, we will more carefully probe the nature of engaged public art.

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