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A public utility commission is the regulatory body that oversees providers of essential services, such as water, gas, electricity, rail, and transportation, among others. In practice, corporate capture has often led to these bodies running cover for private corporations with monopolistic reach. How they behave in the dawning era of data center buildouts is a shadow looming on the horizon.

If we reconsidered ‘public utility’ in the broadest manner, what might that phrase suggest? What would it look like if there were such a commission dedicated to all the little problems and solutions of making life more functional, and fruitful? And what if governance were so shaped that it was our working partner in that realization of our shared reality, down to those minute details? The exhibition “Public Utility Commission” is an attempt to dial that imagination into some clarity. As such, it is a reflection on privatization and fundamental issues of human spirit—like what we owe one another, and the shared responsibilities to those we exist beside—while predatory forces do their best to pollute and diminish the spaces we tenuously hold together.

“Public Utility Commission” features the work of a robust roster of artists—internationally, from England, France, Italy, and the Republic of Georgia; regionally, from Lancaster, Morgantown, Philadelphia, and New York City; and many, locally, from Pittsburgh.

“Public Utility Commission” is designed and curated by Jacquet Kehm and presented by the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust.

Image credit: Collage of Artists featured (left to right) — Mark Wagner, "Power Lines Converge"; Joseph Lupo, "This doesn't make any sense...WHY???"; Bastien Cuenot, untitled. Rearranged with permission of the Artists.