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relationships and disaffected people from their local community. Public art was seen as a key <br /> solution to this problem. <br /> The art historian, Lucy Lippard (1997, p. 9) offers this definition of place: <br /> "The word place has psychological echoes as well as social ramifications. `Someplace' is <br /> what we are looking for. `No place' is where the elements are unknown or invisible, but <br /> in fact every place has them, although some are being buried beneath the asphalt of the <br /> monoculture, the `geography of no where.' `Placelessness,'then, may simply be ignored, <br /> unseen, or unknown." <br /> Since the 1980's public art has seen a repositioning of its purpose from being merely <br /> aesthetic improvements plunked into the public square, to fulfilling a purpose of addressing <br /> deeper structural adjustments in constructing social and psychological well-being (Hall and <br /> Robertson, 2001). Public art is commonly touted as a way to develop a sense of place, local <br /> identity, or a sense of community. It also is advocated as a way to address pervasive social <br /> issues, develop social cohesiveness, and to provide public awareness. Public art is seen as a way <br /> to capture the unique characteristic of a particular geographic place and to build an emotional <br /> attachment. <br /> Kwon (2002, p. 157) argues that the "intensifying conditions of spatial indifferentiation <br /> and departicularization—that is, the increasing instances of locational unspecificity— are seen to <br /> exacerbate the sense of alienation and fragmentation in contemporary life." The function of art, <br /> therefore, is more than aesthetic or decorative, but it becomes part of the social, economic, and <br /> political culture of a specific site. <br /> Political theorists argue that public spaces have become homogenized and abstracted for <br /> the purpose of commerce and result in specific inclusion and exclusion(Deutsche 1996; <br /> Lefebvre 1991). Kwon and Deutsche contend that contemporary public art serves as a tool to <br /> define social relationships within urban spaces, and consequently, has the capacity to exacerbate <br /> 58 <br />