Art U Need: My Part in the Public Art Revolution

Artist Bob and Roberta Smith was recently appointed by Commissions East to oversee a project in which five artists were commissioned to create site-specific projects to transform open spaces in South Essex. Art U Need: My Part in the Public Art Revolution is an intimate account of this project, written in diary form. With sensitivity, candour and a great deal of humour, Bob Smith, and his alter ego, Roberta, ponder the nature and place of public art in today's world. Art U Need is a refreshing addition to the art debate, providing a unique insight into the workings of the artist's mind. Through his remarkably honest approach Bob and Roberta Smith manages to encapsulate the larger issues surrounding the roles of funding bodies, self-expression and, of course, the public, in public art today. AUTHOR: Bob and Roberta Smith is the pseudonym of Patrick Brill, one of London's best-known and most colourful artists, noy=ted for his radical sign painting, cement sculptures and other urban installations. He has recently shown work at The Brick Lane Gallewry, The Baltic Centre, The Hales Gallery and has also exhibited internationally, notably at the Perogi Gallery in New York. Art U Need is the second book that Black Dog Publishing and Bob and Roberta Smith have collaborated on, the first being Make Your Own Damn Art.