Most think, when it comes to ephemeral art, about environmental works. The kind of work that is built from rocks, sticks, grass and leaves and anything that is natural to the environment around it. Art that can the return back to the earth and not do any damage.
But that is not the only ephemeral art. Graffiti even though it is spray paint, yarn bombing and wheat pasting just to name a few gorilla art forms are very ephemeral. Some just last longer then others. Even a commissioned piece of public art work might not last forever. Some work lifespans are shorter than others. Richard Serra, had a piece in New York City that was designed to break up a giant space, it made people angry and it was ultimately taken down. His work is made site specific (a piece made for the one place it is placed and nowhere else) so the metal was then scrapped.
Occasionally, other works get taken down and cause a stir. Maine’s own controversial labor workers mural in the Maine State Labor Building taken down by Gov. Lepage (without seeing it himself but because of an anonymous request) is a case in point. Maine Labor Mural Check this site for ongoing information on this active controversy.
Graffiti is sometimes taken down in a matter of minutes and sometimes left for years. But at the same point it will ultimately be cleaned off or painted over, by a property owner or another Graffiti writer. This continuum of artwork stirs controversy, generally less formally than commissioned work and sometimes in graffiti spats and wars between or among individual or groups of writers.
In the end, it seems that all the public art is ephemeral or short lived. That is, in comparison to more “formal” art forms in galleries or museums. But even for those works, being in the public eye is usually brief, with the work leaving galleries to be moved to storage, the artist’s studio or private collections. So remember that nothing is permanent in public art or for that matter, in art in general.
