I've walked the walk but please don't ask me to talk the talk - that arty-farty verbiage employed to validate a poor effort. We'll leave that to Mr Marcus Canning, thank you very much, as he's done it so well in the pamphlet/catalogue essay.

This public art project attempts to animate vacant retail premises located along the streets of Midland, by displaying large photographs taped to blank inner walls or inside front windows. As well as image exhibits, there is an installation that involves flashing fluorescent lights while another shop has a phrase from an old song painted in day-glo colours on the window's surface.

Now, according to the validating essay by Mr Canning, all this is supposed to "communicate together in a ping-pong formation - chattering Back and Forth / across the heart-land street". Unfortunately the artworks are as vacant as the shops and as articulate as the ping and pong dialogue of a hollow ball. Mr C. also says "their appearance is sudden enough to make some lively ripples", but they don't appear suddenly, one has to look for them and some are difficult to find, even with the map. When we do come across one of them, it's far from lively and the only ripple effect is caused by a dismissive shrug of the shoulders.

Public art should be considered with the public, the art and the venue in mind. It should be presented properly so it will engage the public by inviting us to re-examine our sense of place, or encourage us to challenge the status quo, or evoke a sense of pride/history/ future, and be specific to the site. And that's just for starters. Public art shouldn't be as intrusive or annoying as lights flashing into traffic on a main road, or as vacuous as bland images hung in empty shops, or as unrelated to a business district as a woman weight-lifter posing in the bush, or as pretentious as a quote from T.S. Eliot to endorse a phrase from a song by Jose Feliciano.

Thankfully there is one exhibit that suggests the artist actually investigated her subject, took an interest in the production of the work, and ascertained it be displayed in a professional manner. Located at 50 Helena Street, Simone Fuchs's work involves shadows and silhouettes of people and places around Midland, neatly transformed into a colourful composition of delicate line and interesting shapes that come together to speak poetically of this place.

When we look at the list of sponsors and consider the number of people involved in this project, and the possibility of it being the first in a series, we have to ask ... Why? Considering all the options, the answer can only be ... Satire.