Public Art and the Mural: Interpreting Public Memory Through Prominence, Place, and Color

Culture is the phenomenological materiality of lived experience. How a particular group of people inhabits public space is one way to see culture in action. The artistic ability to translate culture through painted narratives of the past and present is a tool for seeing culture in action. Through the visible accessibility of public memory painted in dynamic spaces of public infrastructure, the mural enlivens the relationship between culture and cultural heritage, making visible the painted narrative and spatially significant public forum to which the public audience is invited. This article explores the mural as one example of how public art, through the tri-dimensionality of paint, messaging, and color, culturally signifies the esthetics of public infrastructure as a way to visualize public memory. The intersectional weaving of public memory, public art, and longevity positions a legal remembering of cultural events framed through the mural-ization of law and street art. This framing of event and memory creates liminal spaces of legal tension on the street that serve as sites for cultural engagement. This framing of public memory through the four examples described in the paper shed light on how culture and law invites reception and craft intent using public infrastructure through message, meaning, color, and placement.