When contemporary arts practice explicitly engages with the rich social, cultural and political possibilities (and problematics) inherent in public space, new avenues for reflection and creative expression can be revealed and made visible, however momentarily. In this way, public art practice can sometimes find a transient register for collective experiences that fall beneath the threshold of official visibilities. I like to think of public art as a potentially transformative practice, creating temporary communities as much as permanent commodities. In other words, public art practice as a form of agency.

Ailbhe Murphy is an artist and co-founder of Vagabond Reviews, an interdisciplinary platform committed to developing creative forms of knowledge production and practice.