Textures of Fogelson Library

Public Art: The term public art properly refers to works of art in any media that has been planned and executed with the specific intention of being sited or staged in the public domain, usually outside and accessible to all. The term is especially significant within the art world, amongst curators, commissioning bodies and practitioners of public art, to whom it signifies a particular working practice, often with implications of site specificity, community involvement and collaboration. The term is sometimes also applied to include any art which is exhibited in a public space including publicly accessible buildings (Wikipedia).

For my installation located in the library, I created a book entitled “Textures of the Fogelson Library.” It is a very short book with illustrations of the various surfaces within and outside of the library (brick, carpet, etc.). I worked with Harriet Meikeljohn, the librarian who is responsible for cataloguing books. We inserted the book/author information within the libraries cataloguing system so that people can actually look the book up, or stumble upon it in their research. There is an actual call number and bar code, so that people are able to check the book out if they feel inclined.

I was interested in creating a fictitious guide for something so mundane (surface textures) it is not given any thought. By placing my book in the public sphere on the shelves with other illustration manuals and art books, I was hoping to legitimize the information. A goal of mine was to make the book seem very old and worn, as though it had traveled through the lives of a number of people. This historical presence is supposed to create a false narrative about the life of the book.

The project was somewhat inspired by the artist Mark Dion, who deals with different systems of classification. “By locating the roots of environmental politics and public policy in the construction of knowledge about nature, Mark Dion questions the authoritative role of the scientific voice in contemporary society” (Art:21). Dion uses systems put in place by museums and galleries in order to classify and exhibit objects with ‘inherent import’ as dictated by those institutions. My installation is an observation on the validity that institutions assume when they give certain objects a presence and place for display. Dion also works with the different institutions that he is somewhat criticizing. I had to bring the work outside of my personal space by creating relations with the library staff who allowed for this project to exist. The librarian and I treated the book as though it were valid and true, despite its spelling errors, fabricated publisher and the misinformation of the copyright date. The process was important to me, as it involved communication with outside parties while allowing me to learn about the cataloguing system of the library.

Sources:

"Art in the Twenty-First Century: Mark Dion: Biography." PBS. 2007. Art21. 3 Nov 2008 .

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_art