Wednesday, 12 December 2012
Saturday, 8 December 2012
Wednesday, 5 December 2012
Wednesday, 28 November 2012
thinking about what stephen said
The biggest issue that I will need to address is how am I going to package my work as art?
So far, I can only think that it can be experienced as art if you are a participant
The art manifests in the mind as well as in the process of taking part.
The art work changes depending on your position to it
The 'concept' of the art can be realized in several ways other than participating in it:
as a written document- you need to have time to read the whole thing- its not instantaneous, you have to be able to speak english.
What are the ways around it? split screen of different points of the conversation all happening at once.
Translating the written document in different languages
Making the words bigger
Making the words fewer, as few as possible
Not using words but telling the story through pictures. Or both
Could one image define the piece? No
There needs to be:
a sense of collectivity
a life drawing situation
discussion clearly about life drawing afterwards
depict the process of questioning ones situation/practice
as an exchange with other people
---------------------------------------
Other projects that have taken place that interest me:
Stephen held life drawing classes with janitors of ECA
Tutors within a year group shared their skills with each other one day a week
First years were given a book which they could approach others with who were reading it too and engage in conversation
Would like to include more members of staff but Stephen worries some would dominate too much- how would we overcome this?
So far, I can only think that it can be experienced as art if you are a participant
The art manifests in the mind as well as in the process of taking part.
The art work changes depending on your position to it
The 'concept' of the art can be realized in several ways other than participating in it:
as a written document- you need to have time to read the whole thing- its not instantaneous, you have to be able to speak english.
What are the ways around it? split screen of different points of the conversation all happening at once.
Translating the written document in different languages
Making the words bigger
Making the words fewer, as few as possible
Not using words but telling the story through pictures. Or both
Could one image define the piece? No
There needs to be:
a sense of collectivity
a life drawing situation
discussion clearly about life drawing afterwards
depict the process of questioning ones situation/practice
as an exchange with other people
---------------------------------------
Other projects that have taken place that interest me:
Stephen held life drawing classes with janitors of ECA
Tutors within a year group shared their skills with each other one day a week
First years were given a book which they could approach others with who were reading it too and engage in conversation
Would like to include more members of staff but Stephen worries some would dominate too much- how would we overcome this?
Monday, 26 November 2012
Tuesday, 20 November 2012
Monday, 19 November 2012
Thursday, 8 November 2012
http://www.go-wander.org/
Soon, there will be an official launch of a new Artist-in-Residence in
The Hague. Wander, born from the former DCR Gueststudio's, represents an
innovative AiR format that provides a custom-made cultural framework
for each guest.
Mobilization, internationalization and network expansion are key in Wander's ambition. Wander offers time and space for research, knowledge exchange and coorperation. The
Mobilization, internationalization and network expansion are key in Wander's ambition. Wander offers time and space for research, knowledge exchange and coorperation. The
re
will be less pressure to focus on the production of art, but more
attention to research and network expansion so the guest gets the
opportunity to be rooted in the cultural field of The Hague.
Wander focuses on bringing together various international professionals from the artworld through exchange, partnerships and hospitality. With linking the international resident to a national art professional we aim to create a 'give&take' priciple that produces a special experience for both parties. We therefore not only provide residencies for artists, but seek resident combinations with curators, writers, philosophers, anthropologists and scientists. Through various partnerships with cultural organizations within and outside The Hague, we strive for the exchange of knowledge and stimulation of the various networks.
In short, with the residency format as way, Wander works as mediator to stimulate the relationship between cultural professionals, cultural organisations and the public.
Check www.gueststudio.com for more information about the former organisation.
Foundation DCR is a cultural hotspot located near the city center of The Hague and consists of an exhibition space, a theatre, a sound studio, an extensive and well equipped workshop and 36 studios used by artists and designers.
Wander focuses on bringing together various international professionals from the artworld through exchange, partnerships and hospitality. With linking the international resident to a national art professional we aim to create a 'give&take' priciple that produces a special experience for both parties. We therefore not only provide residencies for artists, but seek resident combinations with curators, writers, philosophers, anthropologists and scientists. Through various partnerships with cultural organizations within and outside The Hague, we strive for the exchange of knowledge and stimulation of the various networks.
In short, with the residency format as way, Wander works as mediator to stimulate the relationship between cultural professionals, cultural organisations and the public.
Check www.gueststudio.com for more information about the former organisation.
Foundation DCR is a cultural hotspot located near the city center of The Hague and consists of an exhibition space, a theatre, a sound studio, an extensive and well equipped workshop and 36 studios used by artists and designers.
Wednesday, 7 November 2012
writing for 15 minutes
Yesterday at the Strickland Distribution co-research meeting at the Transmission Gallery in Glasgow, I was given advice at the end by one of the members of Strickland Distribution to try writing for 15 minutes at the beginning of writing my dissertation as way to warm up and get any extrapolating thoughts off my chest with the hope that I can begin fresh with my dissertation. So I am going to give it a go today and if I feel that it works well, will then use this method of beginning to write every time.
I find the co-research meetings with the Strickland Distribution very challenging, intellectually. Although they are very accomodating and do not mind at all me asking questions. I definitely do not have the same back ground knowledge as they do on the subject- on Marxist theory and Spanoli- as it was yesterday.
However, the idea of co-research, or indeed research as an art form is something which I am thinking of picking up on in the last chapter of my dissertation. Rather, than to continue dissecting the notion of activism and whether or not the educational projects that I am looking at are forms of activism, look at the idea of research and particular of the militant research that we looked at yesterday and the idea of immanence; of coming together over a shared set of conditions. In this case, that condition being education. Within this research format, there is no object but a sense of open ended-ness. It appears that precedence is placed on the notion of collectivity (indeed that is something that has arisen out of socially engaged art) and that through this collectivity then research and experimentation can occur. As though there is an inherent immanence in us all that will combine us.
Indeed, one can look at the educational turn with such ideologies. And both curators and artists appear to speak of this open-ended form of research with no pre-determined outcome. I think that even once this point of research as been made in my dissertation, one could reconsider it under the lens of activism or indeed a form of activism. Perhaps a forms pre-ordinate to the revolution, an embryonic phase.
This may also have connections to what Angela Dimitrikaki was saying in relation to the multitude. That its form and object is unknown, rather it is merely a collective body that threatens the dominant system.
The educational turn, rather than be outwardly oppositional and activist, it is rather a support network functioning from within.
I think there will be an interesting way in which this will come about in my dissertation. I am trying to configure it in my head at the moment. Indeed, the Strickland Distribution is very self-reflexive in these sessions. It is through this self-reflexivity, framing the sessions that the object object emerges. It suggests that this notion of the momentary turn raised by Irit Rogoff is in fact collective/individual self-reflexivity. The way the reading groups work, different interpretations and collective discussion is this turn- no pre-determined outcome, nor no pre-determined answer. This I think again, refers to the 'compositioning' that is mentioned in the reading. The 'educational' is an immanent condition in us all that allows us to come together and turn. Of what I have experienced, this comes in the form of:
a) through repeated action, meditation, relaxation and opening up/reflexivity- unawkward situtions- Yang Hague
b) self-reflexive dialogical practice
I find the co-research meetings with the Strickland Distribution very challenging, intellectually. Although they are very accomodating and do not mind at all me asking questions. I definitely do not have the same back ground knowledge as they do on the subject- on Marxist theory and Spanoli- as it was yesterday.
However, the idea of co-research, or indeed research as an art form is something which I am thinking of picking up on in the last chapter of my dissertation. Rather, than to continue dissecting the notion of activism and whether or not the educational projects that I am looking at are forms of activism, look at the idea of research and particular of the militant research that we looked at yesterday and the idea of immanence; of coming together over a shared set of conditions. In this case, that condition being education. Within this research format, there is no object but a sense of open ended-ness. It appears that precedence is placed on the notion of collectivity (indeed that is something that has arisen out of socially engaged art) and that through this collectivity then research and experimentation can occur. As though there is an inherent immanence in us all that will combine us.
Indeed, one can look at the educational turn with such ideologies. And both curators and artists appear to speak of this open-ended form of research with no pre-determined outcome. I think that even once this point of research as been made in my dissertation, one could reconsider it under the lens of activism or indeed a form of activism. Perhaps a forms pre-ordinate to the revolution, an embryonic phase.
This may also have connections to what Angela Dimitrikaki was saying in relation to the multitude. That its form and object is unknown, rather it is merely a collective body that threatens the dominant system.
The educational turn, rather than be outwardly oppositional and activist, it is rather a support network functioning from within.
I think there will be an interesting way in which this will come about in my dissertation. I am trying to configure it in my head at the moment. Indeed, the Strickland Distribution is very self-reflexive in these sessions. It is through this self-reflexivity, framing the sessions that the object object emerges. It suggests that this notion of the momentary turn raised by Irit Rogoff is in fact collective/individual self-reflexivity. The way the reading groups work, different interpretations and collective discussion is this turn- no pre-determined outcome, nor no pre-determined answer. This I think again, refers to the 'compositioning' that is mentioned in the reading. The 'educational' is an immanent condition in us all that allows us to come together and turn. Of what I have experienced, this comes in the form of:
a) through repeated action, meditation, relaxation and opening up/reflexivity- unawkward situtions- Yang Hague
b) self-reflexive dialogical practice
short film as documentation
still from shots I took today of the books made in the skill-exchange workshop at the sketchbook library. I plan to make a short film with these clips by layering them with audio of the conversations that took place.
Mobile library
After speaking to the wood technician, it seemed like a good idea to design a completely new structure based on the original double frames. A portable library with shelves of books and ample workspace needs to have a stronger structure than the double frames. Dougie suggested using the 2/4 for the frame and adding a skin with plywood. He then suggested that I made a scaled model. Here are my efforts so far:
Sunday, 4 November 2012
Saturday, 3 November 2012
Branching out
I worry that I may not generate enough enthusiasm for my projects.
Sketchbook library- other ways it can expand... invite anyone in the art college to donate.
offer it up to the art society both contributions and get involved in the skill exchange. Also ask Sarah at Art in Health care, perhaps I could run some skill exchanges with the schools or old people's home. http://www.eusa.ed.ac.uk/societies/society/artsoc/
could any other societies by worth contacting?
create soc:
http://www.eusa.ed.ac.uk/societies/society/createsoc/
knit soc:
http://www.eusa.ed.ac.uk/societies/society/KnitSoc/
Sketchbook library- other ways it can expand... invite anyone in the art college to donate.
offer it up to the art society both contributions and get involved in the skill exchange. Also ask Sarah at Art in Health care, perhaps I could run some skill exchanges with the schools or old people's home. http://www.eusa.ed.ac.uk/societies/society/artsoc/
could any other societies by worth contacting?
create soc:
http://www.eusa.ed.ac.uk/societies/society/createsoc/
knit soc:
http://www.eusa.ed.ac.uk/societies/society/KnitSoc/
http://www.edinburghlets.org.uk/index.htm- a place for skill exchange
Welcome to Edinburgh LETS
Edinburgh LETS has been trading in Reekies since 1992 and has over 150 members.
Trade fairs and talks provide social contact and reinforce the sense of a local trading network which values everyone’s skills and does not have an element of economic exploitation. Sometimes many members come together to help one in crisis.
Part of what makes LETS Edinburgh such a vibrant and exciting trading group is the diversity of people who are involved - our skills range from organic baking to viola lessons to web design. Every new member adds to this diversity!
To find out more, we invite you to explore this website. Membership is open to all, and we invite your participation:
News • Offers • Wants • Learn More • Join • Login
quite an interesting one:
Make Do and Mend I have basic skills in sewing, crotchet, knitting, macrame, painting; woodwork. I can do simple repairs in those areas and make some items from scratch. Examples are: knitted baby clothes, beautiful doll's clothes (e.g. evening gowns, lace trimmed negligees, full outfits with matching hats and bags), computer dust-sheets, crochet/knitted bags, etc. I can also teach knitting, sewing, etc. I'd like to do the work in my own (Duddingston) home.
Edinburgh LETS has been trading in Reekies since 1992 and has over 150 members.
Trade fairs and talks provide social contact and reinforce the sense of a local trading network which values everyone’s skills and does not have an element of economic exploitation. Sometimes many members come together to help one in crisis.
Part of what makes LETS Edinburgh such a vibrant and exciting trading group is the diversity of people who are involved - our skills range from organic baking to viola lessons to web design. Every new member adds to this diversity!
To find out more, we invite you to explore this website. Membership is open to all, and we invite your participation:
News • Offers • Wants • Learn More • Join • Login
quite an interesting one:
Make Do and Mend I have basic skills in sewing, crotchet, knitting, macrame, painting; woodwork. I can do simple repairs in those areas and make some items from scratch. Examples are: knitted baby clothes, beautiful doll's clothes (e.g. evening gowns, lace trimmed negligees, full outfits with matching hats and bags), computer dust-sheets, crochet/knitted bags, etc. I can also teach knitting, sewing, etc. I'd like to do the work in my own (Duddingston) home.
experimental life drawing
Thursday, 1 November 2012
The Library as Incubator project
We believe the library is a place to connect and create.
The Library as Incubator Project was created by Erinn Batykefer, Laura Damon-Moore, and Christina Endres, and was inspired by a discussion about creative advocacy for libraries in one of their courses at the UW-Madison School of Library and Information Studies.
The Project highlights the ways that libraries and artists can work together, and works to strengthen these partnerships. At a time in which both libraries and arts organizations are often having to do more with less, it makes sense for these two parts of our culture to support each other. The Library as Incubator Project calls attention to one of the many reasons libraries are important to our communities and our culture, and provides a dynamic online forum for sharing ideas.
Mission:
The mission of the Library as Incubator Project is to promote and facilitate creative collaboration between libraries and artists of all types, and to advocate for libraries as incubators of the arts. We serve this mission both through the Library as Incubator Project website and through other offline projects.
On our website, we:
- Feature artists, writers, performers and libraries who exemplify the “library as incubator” idea.
- Highlight physical and digital collections and resources that may be of particular use to artists and writers.
- Provide ideas for art education opportunities in libraries with our program kit collection and practical how-to’s for artists and librarians.
Other project activities:
- We work with artist organizations, libraries, and other cultural institutions to help develop meaningful partnerships and programs that promote the “library as incubator” idea.
- We provide professional development for information professionals who wish to incubate the arts at their institutions. Get in touch with us to learn more about our webinars and professional training materials.
Contact the Project:
- If you’re an artist, librarian, or blogger who is interested in being featured on the website or doing a guest blog post, please see our Submit page for guidelines.
- Email the Library as Incubator Project at any time at libraryasincubatorproject@gmail.com.
- Follow us on Twitter: @IArtLibraries
- Like us and chat us up on Facebook: Library as Incubator Project
Support the Project:
Enjoy following what’s new in the library + art community? Consider making a donation to help sustain the work that we do. Visit our Donate page to learn more.---------------------------------------------
Submit:
Artists
We’d love to feature you and your library-incubated project(s) on libraryasincubatorproject.org.We feature artists of all types who have used libraries for:
- Creative project research
- Project development (the actual making/creating of the work)
- Project promotion (exhibits and exhibitions, business planning, tech assistance, etc.)
- Project inspiration or influence
Write up a short paragraph about how libraries (staff, collections, or spaces) have influenced your creative work. Send it to our email address, libraryasincubatorproject@gmail.com, with any relevant links or images included. We’ll follow up with you right away with some additional questions and information.
Tips
- Please submit all images in .jpg or .jpeg format. Images should be at least 300 dpi.
- Please submit all text-based projects (poetry, prose, fiction) as pdfs or word documents.
- Make sure any links you send us are permalinks!
- Make sure to give credit where credit is due. If a photographer who isn’t you took your photos, please add credit lines where appropriate. Otherwise we will assume that you took all of your images.
- Don’t like emailing attachments? Ask us how to submit hard copies.
Contemporary Dance at Flushing Library
This past spring, we featured an exciting collaboration between the Queens Museum and Queens Library, the New New Yorkers Program. This program, managed by José E. Rodriguez, consists of a range of classes for immigrant adult communities in Queens. The classes are taught in a large variety of languages, and focus on the arts, technology and English language acquisition. Target who their audience primarily is and what the aim of the library is, who is my audience and what is my aim of the library project? (to feature on this website?)
Contemporary Dance Workshop at Flushing Library in Queens, led by dancers Hsiao-Wei Hsieh and Hsiao-Ting Hseih.
Featuring: Anja Sieger
Today, we’re delighted to host this lively interview with Anja Sieger, a Milwaukee-based artist who works in multiple art forms, including cut paper. You can find her online at anjanotanja.com. We particularly love her vision of the ideal library– a place where artists’ work is incubated by community knowledge. And telescopes! Enjoy. ~Erinn
“Wild Salad”
Tell us about your library-going habits– how do they relate to your work in cut paper?
I go to the library at least three times a week. In Milwaukee County where I live there are about thirty, wherever I go during the day there is a library nearby. I always peruse the books on themed display and the new books. I explore the stacks with closing my thoughts and walking purposely until my instincts say ‘stop!’ Generally something interesting will be right there. But when I look up and see the Chilton’s Car Repair Manuals I just keep going. The same approach leads my scissors on a piece. I don’t plan what I’m making, but the things I learn from the library inform the work as I snip. I will never out grow storybooks. I think the section for children hold the finest books in any library. My papercuts are abstract stories for viewers of any age and language, especially the ones that look like dragons.
Did you go to the library as a child?
My Mom jokes that we’ve always hung out in libraries the way some people hang out in bars.
Dragon’s Sigh
Tell us about some of the titles or authors that have been important to you. How have they influenced your art?
Snail’s Desire
Your approach to wandering the library stacks seems very intuitive / meditative, and you say that the same kind gut instinct guides you as you work. Can you tell us a bit more about the relationship between the two?
I think curiosity is the organizational force in my universe.
Tainted
I rarely think: “I’m going to make a piece about THIS.” No, usually as I cut I think, hey that shape reminds me of the same emotion that I get when I read my book about ‘Mal Occhio, the Evil Eye.’ My work has been getting progressively more abstract, so my influences might not be so obvious to the viewer without a big long explanatory title or captioned prose. A lot of artists get so personal that they won’t tell the viewer what the piece means to them, and I want to.
What would your ideal library look like?
My ideal library would offer a catalogue of senior citizens and other local experts who you could put “on reserve” to talk to. You would meet up with them at the library café, where talking is permitted as well as drinking coffee or tea.
Dandelion’s Roar
In my ideal library there would be a school. I think most liberal arts classes that a young person takes should be taking place in the library, and they should be using the library to learn their subjects. Just imagine what sort of a society we would have if everybody knew how to find information from reputable sources to form their ideas, and relied on this. If everyone was “learned!” My ideal library would be in the same building as a bowling alley, art museum, skating rink and dance hall. The library would be the sort of quiet place you’d want to hang out in to be alone with other people.
As far as looks, it would be a renaissance castle, but well insulated and handicapped accessible. I think there would be a telescope in one tower and in the other would be an organ you could sign up to use by the hour. Oh! And books would still be stamped with the official due date by a worker at the front desk.
Defensive Dragon
The books, the poorly lit areas where you can find books that no one has checked out in 40 years. Library lectures. Special collections. I like how all the books look side by side. I like all the surprises in the libraries, the ideas that people have edited and turned into something physical that you can open and close. Big 12 pound art books. Maps. Books with full color pictures of places and people far away. Seeing what other people are there and what they are reading.
A bust of ill-fated Captain Charles Hunter (1813-1873) in the Library’s Van Alen Gallery.
And the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time…
–Four Quartets by T.S. Eliot
To Arrive Where We Started, a new exhibition at the Redwood Library and Athenaeum in Newport, RI, explores this theme composed by Eliot. Designed and installed by artist Peter Eudenbach, the exhibition uses the Library’s historic architecture and collections of art, artifacts, and books to create a dialogue between the past and the present. The notino of potential within a gallery site. The project embodies themes of travel, exploration, access, and thresholds—concepts relevant to a library such as the Redwood, which is located in one of the nation’s oldest seaports. The exhibition is on view from July 15, 2012, through June 30, 2013.
A book of phrenology from the library’s collection.
As we move further into the digital age with its characteristic dematerialization of knowledge, it is easy to forget that books and even words are objects.Founded in 1747, the Redwood Library and Athenaeum is America’s oldest lending library and the oldest library still operating in its original building. The many additions from the 19th and 20th centuries have left a cumulative structure that is itself a collection.
Conceptual artist Peter Eudenbach arranges the original key to the library above a skylight.
To Arrive Where We Started continues the Library’s mission to perpetuate the dissemination of knowledge and the exploration of ideas.Beginning at the Library’s original entrance, the installation progresses along an axis from the oldest part of the building through the more recent additions, activating the architecture and creating a dialogue with the present.
Visit Art & Education for a full announcement of the exhibition.
Learn more about Rhode Island’s Redwood Library.
Peter Eudenbach’s approach to sculpture, installation, and video operates between material and metaphor to explore the history of ideas while playing with our expectations of the commonplace. His work has been shown both nationally and internationally at venues such as Ars Electronica in Linz, Austria; Exit Art in New York; and le Musée d’Art Moderne et Contemporain de Strasbourg, France. A recipient of a Virginia Museum of Fine Arts Fellowship, Eudenbach has had solo exhibitions at the Kunstverein Grafschaft Bentheim in Neuenhaus, Germany, and at the Taubman Museum of Art in Roanoke, Virginia, in 2009. He lives in Norfolk, Virginia, where he is an Associate Professor of Art at Old Dominion University.
It’s shaping up to be an inspiring fall here at the Library as Incubator Project when it comes to fabric arts and quilting! Skill exchange- quilting? Last week, I attended the Wisconsin Quilt Expo with my mom, a school librarian– not only did we come away with a TON of new fabric and ideas, my blog on the subject also helped us reach out to libraries and librarians who support this wonderful American craft tradition in their communities. Nann Blaine Hilyard, a quilting librarian who co-founded the ALA BiblioQuilters was one of them! Read on to learn more about the group’s work and how you can get involved, and stay tuned for more quilting features on the site! ~Erinn
Meet the ALA BiblioQuilters
by Nann Blaine Hilyard
The ALA Biblioquilters (ALABQ) began in 1998 at the Annual Conference in Washington, DC, when I met Connie Jo Ozinga (then in Rochester, MN) by chance outside the convention center. We had met virtually on a public library listserv and through quilt newsgroups, but had not met in person.
For the 1999 Annual Conference in New Orleans we announced a fabric shopping expedition and invited other attendees to join in the fun. Since then, the ALABQs have met at ALA and PLA conferences from San Francisco and Seattle to Greensboro, NC, and Philadelphia to shop for fabric, visit quilt shows, and tour textile museums.
In 2000, the BiblioQuilters created our first collaborative quilt for the Exhibits Round Table silent auction to benefit the Christopher Hoy Scholarship Fund. The 24 quilts we contributed to the silent auction from 2000-2012 have raised more than $8,000.
- The ERT Auction Booth
- 2011′s collaborative auction quilt, “Wonky”
- A collaborative quilt from the 2010 auction.
- Collaborative “Bookshelf” quilt.
- 2012 auction quilt, “Checkerboard Crossroads” by Nann Blaine Hilyard.
- “Blue Streak,” a 2012 auction quilt by Steve Stratton.
Membership in the ALA BiblioQuilters is open to any quiltmaker who works in or with libraries: librarian, support staff, trustee, friend, or vendor. Conference attendance is not required (but the meet-ups are great fun!). Auction quilt planning happens online through our Yahoo Group.
Want More?
- GET INVOLVED | Anyone who is interested in participating in the ALA BiblioQuilters group can check out their Yahoo Group, or get in touch with Nann Blaine Hilyard: nbhilyard [at] zblibrary [dot] org
- CONNECT ON FACEBOOK | Like the ALA BiblioQuilters Facebook page, explore their albums of beautiful quilt pictures from past Conferences, and chat with other quilters and librarians.
- SCHOLARSHIP | Find more info on ALA’s general scholarships, including the Christopher J. Hoy / ERT Scholarship that the BiblioQuilters sponsor each year through their beautiful contributions to the Exhibits Round Table silent auction.
Today we welcome photographer and mixed-media artist Cheryl Sorg, an avid book lover with an obsessive streak that results in astonishing art. Her creative work isn’t just inspired by books and library-incubated; her “bookworks” use entire books as media, each one painstakingly cut apart, line by line. The final pieces she creates are stunning, but so too are the images–in print– used to build each one. Read on to learn more about Cheryl’s exciting work and explore the huge gallery of examples she shared with us. Enjoy! ~Erinn
- “100 Years of Solitude”
- “1000 Cranes”
- Bronte’s “Wuthering Heights”
- Rebecca Walker “Baby Love” Thumbprint Portrait.
- “Booklover” Thumbprint Portrait – Cheryl Sorg
- “Booklover” Thumbprint Portrait | Detail.
- “Bodies, I have in mind, and how they can change to assume new shapes….” Ovid’s Metamorphoses | Details.
- “Sing in Me Muse, and through me tell the story….” Homer’s Odyssey | In progress.
- “Sing in Me Muse, and through me tell the story….” Homer’s Odyssey.
- “Surely all this is not without meaning….” Moby Dick | Detail.
- “Surely all this is not without meaning….” Moby Dick.
- “Surely all this is not without meaning….” Moby Dick | In situ.
- “Sing in Me Muse, and through me tell the story….” Homer’s Odyssey. | Detail.
- The Qur’an.
- Murakami’s “Wind-up Bird Chronicle”
Tell us about the first library that played a part in your creative process for these works. What about the library helped you develop an idea or inspired you?
The first library that played a part in my creative process– these works specifically, that is–would certainly be the Boston Public Library. What a beautiful place that library is….the building itself is just gorgeous, and with a surrounded outdoor courtyard garden that is just so inspiring. As a student, back when I still photographed people out in the world, I used that lovely courtyard as my shoot location several times!
Why the library? What does it do for your art that you can’t get elsewhere? What does a library represent to you in terms of your work?
Well, the library is a natural place for me to be drawn to, given that books serve as my primary inspiration. And in this age of digital books, a space in which the physical book is everywhere can take your breath away. we are living in an age where books are now digital And libraries are so much more than books, too…..the one near where I live now hosts classical music and dance performances, art exhibitions, art workshops, countless kids’ activities. So, so much. Now that I’m a mom, I find them an even more enjoyable and inspiring place than ever before. My kids consider it a HUGE treat when I offer to take them to the library and, if I let them have their say, I leave with more children’s books than I can even fit into the huge tote I bring!
As an artist, what would your ideal library be like? What sorts of things would you be able to do there? What kinds of stuff would it collect?
My ideal library would have the ethos of Willy Wonka’s factory: an intuitive and imaginative place that encourages curiosity, playfulness and is full of unexpected surprises. It would provide many ways of discovering, not only the traditional computer catalogue and Dewey call numbers.
by on Mar 27, 2012 • 6:58 am 5 Comments
Well, the library is a natural place for me to be drawn to, given that books serve as my primary inspiration. And in this age of digital books, a space in which the physical book is everywhere can take your breath away. we are living in an age where books are now digital And libraries are so much more than books, too…..the one near where I live now hosts classical music and dance performances, art exhibitions, art workshops, countless kids’ activities. So, so much. Now that I’m a mom, I find them an even more enjoyable and inspiring place than ever before. My kids consider it a HUGE treat when I offer to take them to the library and, if I let them have their say, I leave with more children’s books than I can even fit into the huge tote I bring!
As an artist, what would your ideal library be like? What sorts of things would you be able to do there? What kinds of stuff would it collect?
My ideal library would have the ethos of Willy Wonka’s factory: an intuitive and imaginative place that encourages curiosity, playfulness and is full of unexpected surprises. It would provide many ways of discovering, not only the traditional computer catalogue and Dewey call numbers.
Documenting the Detritus Project is a new guest blog series written by a dear friend of the Library as Incubator Project, Melissa Kolstad. Melissa is a collagist/ephemeralist who works in Fond du Lac, Wisconsin. She is a member of the Fond du Lac Visual Arts collective, which has a close partnership with the Fond du Lac Public Library. The Detritus Project is a new project that Mel is working on, which seeks to document and examine what people leave – parts of their everyday lives and activities – when they return library books. Mel will document her progress on the Detritus Project twice a month until June.
by Melissa Kolstad
In the six weeks that I have been following the Library as Incubator Project, I have been inspired countless times by the many ways that our libraries enrich our lives. When one is inspired, creativity usually follows.
And so began an idea that came to me when I was perusing my own checked-out library books and noticed the due date slip: I wonder what other things people leave behind when the books are returned?
Instead of just musing on the subject, I sprang to action and e-mailed Terri Fleming, the Community Information Coordinator for our Fond du Lac Public Library(s). I got to know Terri through Fond du Lac Visual Arts’ involvement with the Langdon Divers gallery inside the library’s main branch (which we curate). I asked her if the librarians would be willing to participate in a little “experiment”, whereby they would collect everything that was found in returned and donated books. Within a day I had my answer – Circulation Coordinator Lori Burgess and the librarians were all for it! And with that, the Detritus Project was born!
And hoo boy, were the librarians ever thorough! Look at what was collected in books in only one week’s time:
And while the wonderful support staff at the FDLPL may find this idea more than a bit odd, I reaped the rewards of their diligence. :) PAYDIRT!! Here are some of the varied and cool items that were found:
- Gift cards – hopefully they’re used up!
- A to-do list (I wonder if her room stayed clean?)
- A very friendly homemade bookmark!
- Helpful hints!
- A Florida Turnpike “Sun Pass.”
- A proclamation of love (so sweet!).
- Actual bookmarks (and LOTS of ‘em!).
- A HUGE mound of library slips (this one was a given).
- A car number for Gilles, a Fond du Lac landmark drive-in. Love the poem on the back!
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I’ve got more than enough stuff – now, what do I DO with it? That’s for the next post. Stay tuned!
The Detritus Project, Part 2: Sorting it Out
by on Mar 27, 2012 • 6:58 am 5 Commentsby Melissa Kolstad
In the six weeks that I have been following the Library as Incubator Project, I have been inspired countless times by the many ways that our libraries enrich our lives. When one is inspired, creativity usually follows.
And so began an idea that came to me when I was perusing my own checked-out library books and noticed the due date slip: I wonder what other things people leave behind when the books are returned?
Instead of just musing on the subject, I sprang to action and e-mailed Terri Fleming, the Community Information Coordinator for our Fond du Lac Public Library(s). I got to know Terri through Fond du Lac Visual Arts’ involvement with the Langdon Divers gallery inside the library’s main branch (which we curate). I asked her if the librarians would be willing to participate in a little “experiment”, whereby they would collect everything that was found in returned and donated books. Within a day I had my answer – Circulation Coordinator Lori Burgess and the librarians were all for it! And with that, the Detritus Project was born!
And hoo boy, were the librarians ever thorough! Look at what was collected in books in only one week’s time:
And while the wonderful support staff at the FDLPL may find this idea more than a bit odd, I reaped the rewards of their diligence. :) PAYDIRT!! Here are some of the varied and cool items that were found:
- Gift cards – hopefully they’re used up!
- A to-do list (I wonder if her room stayed clean?)
- A very friendly homemade bookmark!
- Helpful hints!
- A Florida Turnpike “Sun Pass.”
- A proclamation of love (so sweet!).
- Actual bookmarks (and LOTS of ‘em!).
- A HUGE mound of library slips (this one was a given).
- A car number for Gilles, a Fond du Lac landmark drive-in. Love the poem on the back!
The Detritus Project, Part 2: Sorting it Out
by Melissa Kolstad
Author’s note: This is the second in a series of posts concerning The Detritus Project, an interactive library art work that I’m creating in conjunction with the Fond du Lac Public Library in Fond du Lac, WI. For Part 1, click here.
When I last wrote, I had just finished going through the huge bag of stuff that the librarians at the Fond du Lac Public Library had collected for me. My last question, which was more than rhetorical, was, “What am I going to do this all of this?”
This put me in “brainstorming mode”. Since I didn’t know what to expect when I got the bag of goodies, I couldn’t really picture what I was going to create. Now that I know what I have to work with, I could begin the process of sorting.
I really love creating abstract collages, so I thought for a bit about just going crazy and making a huge collage using every little scrap of paper that I was given. But I also want to celebrate our library in particular, so I think I’ll scrap that idea and concentrate on making something that the viewer will instantly recognize as “Fondy” (that’s the nickname we citizens have lovingly bestowed upon our fair city).
I feel the idea taking shape! So what I think I’ll do is (and this may seem like a boring choice) sort the stuff into two piles – the due date slips… and everything else.
What? How totally boring! Here I have a wealth of colorful items at my disposal and I’m actually thinking about using the bland due date slips?!?!
Why yes. Yes I am. And in the next post, you’ll see that I won’t regret my decision – hopefully. Stay tuned!
Author’s note: This is the second in a series of posts concerning The Detritus Project, an interactive library art work that I’m creating in conjunction with the Fond du Lac Public Library in Fond du Lac, WI. For Part 1, click here.
When I last wrote, I had just finished going through the huge bag of stuff that the librarians at the Fond du Lac Public Library had collected for me. My last question, which was more than rhetorical, was, “What am I going to do this all of this?”
This put me in “brainstorming mode”. Since I didn’t know what to expect when I got the bag of goodies, I couldn’t really picture what I was going to create. Now that I know what I have to work with, I could begin the process of sorting.
I really love creating abstract collages, so I thought for a bit about just going crazy and making a huge collage using every little scrap of paper that I was given. But I also want to celebrate our library in particular, so I think I’ll scrap that idea and concentrate on making something that the viewer will instantly recognize as “Fondy” (that’s the nickname we citizens have lovingly bestowed upon our fair city).
I feel the idea taking shape! So what I think I’ll do is (and this may seem like a boring choice) sort the stuff into two piles – the due date slips… and everything else.
Why yes. Yes I am. And in the next post, you’ll see that I won’t regret my decision – hopefully. Stay tuned!
It’s March, and you know what that means: we get to catch up with fiber artist Sarah Hemm and see what she created throughout the extra-long February Embroider the Day project! Read on:
Week Two: This week I was excited to start a new series that incorporates snapshots from the lives of everyday mothers and children, and uses embroidery to highlight struggles and contradictions. Pattern plays a big role in my first piece, Comfort is Not an Option.
In February, I continued to be inspired by patterns, and with my embroidery was interested in creating original patterns – which is a very hard thing to do. It’s challenging to use simple, traditional stitches and create new iterations of surface design.Week One: This week I was exploring some new fabrics and responding to the interaction between the fabric designs and my embroidery.
My connection with the library this month involved lots of time spent in the craft section, picking up everything from Weaving in the Peruvian Highlands to Fabulous Fabrics of the 50s.
"Beluga." 2” x 5”. 32/366.
"Motherhood: Comfort is Not an Option," hand embroidery on photograph printed on cardstock. 8” x 10”. 40/366
Detail: "Comfort is not an option"
by Laura Damon-Moore
The Newark Public Library in Newark, New Jersey hosted two exhibitions this winter that highlighted local talent and showcased holdings in the Library’s Special Collections Division.
BBoys and Butterflies: The Stencil Art of Jerry Gant features a collection of original stencils created by the artist between 2001 and 2011, and spray-painted images on cloth created from them specifically for the present exhibition. While Gant’s art has been shown extensively in galleries, museums, and other institutions, the present exhibition is the first to focus exclusively on his stencil work.
To many Newark residents and visitors, the art of Jerry Gant may may be more familiar than his name. A master of many media, from textile and clothing design, to metal sculpture, woodcarving, wall murals, and even spoken word, Gant has been a fixture of the Newark Art Scene for decades. In the words of fellow artist, Kevin Blythe Sampson:
For Decoration and Agitation: An Exhibition of Stencil and Pochoir Books and Art explores the use of stencils by artists around the world in creating and coloring prints and illustrations, from the late nineteenth century to the present day. The exhibition features work by 60 artists and is drawn almost entirely from the holdings of the Library’s Special Collections Division. Major areas represented in the exhibition include book and journal illustration (children’s literature, fine press, and fashion design), hand-made paper, fine art prints, artists’ books, and broadsides.
The Newark Public Library in Newark, New Jersey hosted two exhibitions this winter that highlighted local talent and showcased holdings in the Library’s Special Collections Division.
BBoys and Butterflies: The Stencil Art of Jerry Gant features a collection of original stencils created by the artist between 2001 and 2011, and spray-painted images on cloth created from them specifically for the present exhibition. While Gant’s art has been shown extensively in galleries, museums, and other institutions, the present exhibition is the first to focus exclusively on his stencil work.
Installation view of stencil projects by Jerry Gant. On view at the Newark Public Library.
“If Newark were to look for an artist that most represents it, it would be Jerry Gant. … No artist in this city has had a more visible presence or impact on the people of Newark.”BBoys and Butterflies is a collaborative project between Jerry Gant and Jared Ash, Special Collection Division. It is presented in conjunction with the exhibition, For Decoration and Agitation: An Exhibition of Stencil and Pochoir Books and Art, which is on view in the Third Floor Gallery, Main Library, November 16–January 21.
For Decoration and Agitation: An Exhibition of Stencil and Pochoir Books and Art explores the use of stencils by artists around the world in creating and coloring prints and illustrations, from the late nineteenth century to the present day. The exhibition features work by 60 artists and is drawn almost entirely from the holdings of the Library’s Special Collections Division. Major areas represented in the exhibition include book and journal illustration (children’s literature, fine press, and fashion design), hand-made paper, fine art prints, artists’ books, and broadsides.
Jerry Gant hosts a stencil workshop at the Newark Public Library. Photo courtesy of Jared Ash and the Newark Public Library.
Participants in the stencil workshop at the Newark Public Library. Photo courtesy of Jared Ash and the Newark Public Library.
Project materials at the stencil workshop, hosted by Jerry Gant and the Newark Public Library. Photo courtesy of Jared Ash and the Newark Public Library.
The article describes the design projects as something that will “inspire learning.” Can you expand on that?
The students working on the project were given a list of words that they could use in their designs. The terms are Drexel University learning outcomes and words typically used to describe libraries.
What role did the library play in the facilitation of the project – will it be mainly an exhibition/display space? Studio space? Inspiration?
The Libraries initiated the project. The Dean and myself had meetings to discuss the project with the professors and helped to frame the project. Then, the Learning Terrace served as a display space for all of the student work. The final, selected pieces, will be installed on the screens in the Spring.
What will be the outcome of the project?
Several students in the Typography classes will have their designs printed on the Herman Miller project and it will be used in the Learning Terrace.
- Several Designs in the Typography Exhibit. Photo by Jenny James Lee.
- Professors Yoshinaga and Colton review designs. Photo by Jenny James Lee.
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The State Library of Queensland in Brisbane, Australia, served as part-studio, part-classroom for one artist in mid-November. British artist Stephen Wiltshire drew a panorama of the city in the library, where library patrons could easily stop in to observe and ask questions.
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