Matthew Harrison Tedford

This project seeks to uncover the nature of politics as a means for understanding what makes a work of art political. A political phenomenon possesses four primary dimensions: expressive, conflictual, regulatory, and ephemeral. What kinds of art practices are most capable of exhibiting these political dimensions? How would this look? Public Ad Campaign’s 2009 New York Street Advertising Takeover, a temporary guerilla street art project, was such a work, serving to create a discourse about the use of public space in New York City. It is used here to illustrate the principles of politics and how they can be applied practically to a work of art.