Six Degrees: Art in the Libraries ,Summer 2001,sponsored by Side St.
Projects, Los Angeles, CA, co-curated by Karen Atkinson, Sam Erenberg and
Judith A. Hoffberg involves thirteen projects by L.A. visual artists in
libraries in Southern California, including the Los Angeles Public Library
system, the Beverly Hills Public Library and UCLA's Clark Library.
Artists Writing Reading Room, an invitational exhibition of artists who use
writing as a component of their work and writers who have a visual component
to their writing, curated by Annetta Kapon for the Side Street Projects
Gallery, coincides with the project. Side Street Projects Gallery, 400 S.
Main St., Los Angeles 90013, opening 16 June from 6 - 9 p.m.

A symposium titled Fire in the Library/Fire in the Mind, organized by artist
Eugenia Butler, was held at the Central Branch of the Los  Angeles Public
Library on 16 June from  2  - 5 p.m.

Art in the Libraries is a series of site-specific artworks installed and/or
performed in libraries throughout the L.A. Basin by local artists. The
three-month project was underwritten by grants from The Cultural Affairs
Department of the City of Los Angeles and LLWW Foundation.

The projects are about discovery, and the element of surprise in an already
contextualized space. Each project relates to ideas about the nature of the
library, including but not limited to the notion of "checking objects out of
the library," and "insertion" into the space. The artists’ projects attempt
a more subversive tack than placing discreet objects into public spaces.
Other ideas frame the context and future of the book itself.

The Six Degrees title comes from its relationship to the common phrase, six
degrees of separation. The internetworking of relationships and connections
is what the Six Degrees project attempts to evoke, bringing together various
groups of people who would not normally work together, and create a
connection, an interchange, a dialogue.

Curators:

Karen Atkinson's curatorial perspective for this project is inspired from
actions within the library itself. Using the ideas of insertion and
intervention, artists were asked to consider the following: while libraries
are primarily known for what may be checked out, they are also repositories
for knowledge. How artists will use this knowledge in order to add to it, or
intervene is a primary consideration. How the artists relate to the
potential audience is an important factor.

Sam Erenberg has a penchant for rigorous intellectual production, as well as
an identification with formal presentation. His interest in working with
artists who are not identified as "book artists" is a key curatorial factor.

Judith A Hoffberg is well known as one of the foremost "experts" on artists'
books in the world. Her curatorial stance for this project comes from her
interest in context and audience interaction. She has chosen artists whose
work confronts the historical and theoretical context of the site, while
being "accessible" to the viewer. This includes but is not limited to
artists who have previously done artist books.

Artists:

Margaret Morgan’s contribution, Unpacking My Library, documents private
places in the public sphere and puts them squarely in full view: It consists
of a series of photographs of the insides of toilets and bathrooms, placed
in the viewing areas of the library. If possible, some small photographs
will also be placed in their catalogue positions on the shelves. A subtext
to the work is the relationship between the archive and the library. She has
been collecting photographs of public toilets for twenty years and has only
recently been pulling them out of the archive, out of the dark, out of the
private spaces of her practice as an artist, and into the light and order of
public view. Time and place to be announced.

In Hollywood at the Frances Howard Goldwyn Hollywood Regional Branch of the
Los Angeles Public Library, Wendy Furman and Steve Roden will be featured.
Wendy Furman, known for her ability to take flea market discards and
reinterpret them as sensitive, formal objects in wall-bound installations,
this time will feature opulent color backgrounds scattered randomly
throughout the library and placed within the backs of the bookshelves. Some
books will have been re-slipcovered in pastel papered book jackets. She
creates happenstance of art within this unexpected setting. Steve Roden will
do a quiet sound composition using only the sounds of pages turning and
various handlings of books and pages, a kind of subliminal experience. Roden
is a Los Angeles-based painter, sculpture and sound artist. These events
will take place from 14 July - 31 August. Address: 1623 N. Ivar, Los
Angeles, CA 90028.

At the William Andrew Clark Memorial Library of UCLA, 2520 Cimarron St in
Los Angeles, Gerald Giamportone will install a group of tables made from
materials including cork, felt, formica, roses and wood in the drawing room
of the library. A special open house and reception will take place on 14
July from 2 - 5 p.m. This is a rare experience for the public to visit the
Clark rare book library. The exhibition will be up from 12 July - 31 July.

At the Beverly Hills Public Library from 16 July - 16 September, Sam
Erenberg will be showing The Complete Works of Roland Barthes, a
site-specific installation re-configured for the Reference Reading Room. The
installation consists of a table with 24 hand-bound books written by the
late French linguist and social critic, Roland Barthes, and several
photographs of Erenberg’s artist-friends, each posing with one of the books.
Address: 444 N. Rexford Dr., Beverly Hills, CA 90210.

Melinda Smith Altshuler will be doing a site-specific installation at the
Robertson Branch Library, entitled Rising Hopes/Fallen Angels: The Politics
of Illiteracy. Altshuler will address the aimlessness of books without
readers through the sculptural form of books. Library books are available
and waiting for people in search of answers, but they cannot offer anything
to those who cannot read. They are just winged angels awaiting flight. Her w
ork will be up from 14 July - 31 August.  Opening: 14 July, 3 - 5 p.m.
Address: 1719 S. Robertson Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90035.

Joyce Dallal will be doing an exterior piece, Three Words, at the Fairfax
Branch of the Los Angeles Public Library from 30 June - 29 September. Using
fabric, vinyl, pinwheels and kites in bright colors, this branch library in
disrepair and soon to be demolished, will have three words related to
reading disguised and requiring the visitors to decode the words like a
beginning reader. On 6 August at 6:30 p.m. many of the artists in the whole
Art in the Libraries project will join for a reception and a discussion of
their work. Address: 161 S. Gardner St., Los Angeles, CA 90036.

Mercedes Teixido’s piece, Blood Count, is a counting exercise at the Venice
Branch of the Los Angeles PUblic Library where she will be counting books,
sometimes by row, sometimes by categories. She will then display the
information gathered as small stacks of paper which represent the exact
number of books currently in the collection as miniature sculptures of
towering paper from just an inch to a foot high. tba at 501 S. Venice Blvd.,
Venice, CA 90291. Dates to be announced.

Laura Stickney and Vilma Mendillo have been doing workshops since February
at the Los Feliz branch of the Los Angeles Public Library, using the library
as a studio, an exhibition space, an archive, a research resource, and an
observatory. They have been doing monoprinting and drawing workshops as well
as bookmaking workshops, first helping participants make a biographical
book, and then doing a personal archive book.  Ongoing exhibition through
the summer. Address: 1874 Hillhurst, Los Angeles, CA 90027.

Jessica Holada will be doing a site-specific installation, called New
Arrivals: Public Books for the Information Age, at the John C. Fremont
Branch, Los Angeles Public Library, 6121 Melrose Avenue. This involves a
host of "altered" books, creating new narratives and ideas within the
published works, inviting visitors to conduct a "physical search" for
altered books shelved within the branch library’s holdings. The opening is
on Saturday 11 August and the exhibition goes from 13 August - 29 September.
6121 Melrose, Los Angeles, CA 90038.

To round out the various media involved in this project, John and Toti O’
Brien will be doing performances at the Wilshire Branch and the Cahuenga
Branch of the Los Angeles Public Library. Entitled "Mur-Moiré", the
performance includes video projections, spoke and recorded voices/sound in
multiple languages, costumes and live action. They tell stories which have
multiple currents running through them, and in the process of telling the
stories, they move from a more linear understanding of language to a more
dreamlike one. The performance itself will draw on the specific history of
the library as the gathering point of collective fictions and dreams that
make up the imaginary and spatial place where we dwell.

The performances at the Cahuenga Branch will take place at 6 p.m. on 15
August and 22 August. Address: 4591 Santa Monica Blvd., Los Angeles, CA
90028.

The performances at the Wilshire Branch will take place at 4 p.m. on 16
August . Address: 149 N. St. Andrews Pl., Los Angeles, CA 90004.

For any information, contact Judith A. Hoffberg, [log in to unmask]

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