More on Bibliophile Art...
Sep. 1st, 2008 04:44 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rhythmaningPrompted by Extra Salt n Sauce, I went to see the installation at Stills Gallery, the Martha Rosler Library. It left me less than whelmed; it was a library, more or less. I didn’t feel inclined to engage with the art – I didn’t want to look at the books much, though I flicked through a couple.
I guess I really didn’t get what it was about at all. I just thought “books” – which of course I think are great – but it didn’t give me a different perspective; and as libraries go, it wasn’t a place I wanted to linger. So I didn’t.
But it worried me: The House of Books Has No Windows at the Fruitmarket Gallery – another installation composed of books – had really grabbed me: it had made me smile and laugh, and I longed to be able to open the books and read them. Why was this different?
So being just around the corner, I went back to the Fruitmarket to have another look at the Janet Cardiff and George Bures Miller installations.
And I still think they are wonderful.
They were selling postcards of The House of Books Has No Windows, and since I can’t find images of it anywhere on the internet, I scanned the postcard.
I found the The House of Books Has No Windows more captivating than before. I went inside; I was filled with wonder. I wanted to touch the books. And it made me smile. There was a note by Janet Miller that I hadn’t read before:
I love that – it really resonates with me.
The other installations were worth revisiting, too. The Dark Pool seemed more quirky and interesting: I was in the room by myself, and I realised the extent to which the soundwork depends on the listener – standing in different places triggers different sounds; it became a game to interact with different sounds.
I saw Opera for a Small Room in a different part of its twenty minute cycle, and it was genuinely spooky.
Unfortunately, the last piece – which wasn’t working last time – wasn’t working again. Or perhaps that is fortunate: I shall have to go back again…
I guess I really didn’t get what it was about at all. I just thought “books” – which of course I think are great – but it didn’t give me a different perspective; and as libraries go, it wasn’t a place I wanted to linger. So I didn’t.
But it worried me: The House of Books Has No Windows at the Fruitmarket Gallery – another installation composed of books – had really grabbed me: it had made me smile and laugh, and I longed to be able to open the books and read them. Why was this different?
So being just around the corner, I went back to the Fruitmarket to have another look at the Janet Cardiff and George Bures Miller installations.
And I still think they are wonderful.
They were selling postcards of The House of Books Has No Windows, and since I can’t find images of it anywhere on the internet, I scanned the postcard.
© Janet Cardiff and George Bures Miller. Photo by Alan Dimmick
I found the The House of Books Has No Windows more captivating than before. I went inside; I was filled with wonder. I wanted to touch the books. And it made me smile. There was a note by Janet Miller that I hadn’t read before:
I love libraries because of the layers of time and meaning they contain. I like how you can escape into other worlds in a library, how when you open a book, you’re somewhere else
I love that – it really resonates with me.
The other installations were worth revisiting, too. The Dark Pool seemed more quirky and interesting: I was in the room by myself, and I realised the extent to which the soundwork depends on the listener – standing in different places triggers different sounds; it became a game to interact with different sounds.
I saw Opera for a Small Room in a different part of its twenty minute cycle, and it was genuinely spooky.
Unfortunately, the last piece – which wasn’t working last time – wasn’t working again. Or perhaps that is fortunate: I shall have to go back again…