The Trial of Tilted Arc

The artwork on trial is Richard Serra s public sculpture, Tilted Arc, commissioned and installed by the U.S. government in 1981. Four years later, a public hearing was held to consider the removal of the sculpture from its site in Federal Plaza in New York City. In documenting the climatic General Services Administration hearing, The Trial Of Tilted Arc is a thought-provoking indictment of the state of the arts. At issue is the validity of a contract between an artist and the government, the freedom of artistic expression, and the public s involvement in designing the visual environment. The dialogue/debate between the art community and the bureaucrats has described this site-specific art work in terms ranging from masterpiece to mouse trap. Shu Lea Cheang is a multi-media artist working in the field of net-based installation, social interface and film production. Her net installation works are in the permanent collections of the Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, NTT[ICC], Tokyo and the Guggenheim Museum: (Bowling Alley, 1995; Buy One Get One, 1997; and Brandon, 1998-1999). She has made two theatrical feature films: Fresh Kill, which premiered at the Berlin Film Festival in 1994 and was included in Whitney Biennale (New York) in 1995; and I.K.U., produced by Tokyo s Uplink, which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in 2000. Her recent installation and web projects include BabyPlay (NTT[ICC], Tokyo, 2001), Garlic=RichAir (Creative Time, New York, 2002), Burn (Venice Biennale, 2003), Milk (56K Bastard TV, 2004), and BabyLove (Palais de Tokyo, 2005). She has co-founded several collectives: Kingdom of Piracy (based in net space since 2001); Mumbai Streaming Attack (based in Zurich since 2003); and TAKE2030 (based in London since 2003). In 2007 she launched MobiOpera , a collective public cinema made with mobile phones at the New Frontier, Sundance Film Festival. She is currently developing LOVEME2030 , a series of multi-screen-based installations set in Metropolis Europa.