Relevance of Place: Shannon Jackson in Conversation with Suzanne Lacy

Relevance of Place: Shannon Jackson in Conversation with Suzanne Lacy

Relevance of Place is an online series of site-specific dialogues that explore the meaning of place at Tippet Rise Art Center. Guided by Shannon Jackson, Chair of the History of Art Department at UC-Berkeley and a scholar of socially-engaged art, Relevance of Place invites artists, architects, designers, and creative thinkers to engage in conversation about the ethics, aesthetics, and relevance of place. These conversations explore “place” as a global, local, and personal concept as well as “place” as it refers specifically to Tippet Rise, a site that brings together “art, music, land, sky, and poetry” creating an “algorithm that is greater than the sum of its parts.” In individual interviews and group dialogues, each guest offers stories and insights from their own practice. Together, they reflect on the historic past and sustainable future of Tippet Rise—as an environmental site, as a wide-ranging art center, and as a creative gathering space.

Here, Jackson interviews internationally renowned artist Suzanne Lacy on how principles of community and relationality inform her public art and activism as well as her response to Tippet Rise. In this episode, Lacy recalls several of her public art projects, including those that address topics such as religious difference, gender, race, and human rights. Watch as she discusses the balance between artistic vision and community interaction, as well why she found Patrick Dougherty’s Daydreams to be a form that resonantly combines the practice of public sculpture with an invitation to gather and play.

Filmed in May 2022.