Sculpture | Installation
In the Center There Were Librarians (2018)
Presented within the interior space of an existing monument, these pieces explore how gestures create imagery that reveals the internal space of memory.
“In the Center There Were Librarians” and Other Gestures
2018 | Installation view: Dimensions variable
Photo Credit: Kip Wilkinson
A Large Reference Corral, Literally Like a Counter, That Went around the Center and in the Center There Were Librarians: Reference Corral (Carolyn)
2018 | Honeycomb cardboard, glue | 18 x 23 x 16 feet
Photo Credit: Kip Wilkinson
“In the Center There Were Librarians” and Other Gestures
2018 | Detail
Photo Credit: Kip Wilkinson
This piece translates a motion-captured gesture made by the former librarian who worked in this room when the Chicago Cultural Center was a library. The title refers to the words spoken while making the gesture. It is scaled to the size of the original desk according to the librarian’s memory. The viewers walk around the work and may occupy the central space of the gesture from ground level.
“In the Center There Were Librarians” and Other Gestures
2018 | Detail
Photo credit: Kip Wilkinson
Matty Davis and Ben Gould’s “Carriage,” a site-responsive performance in the installation space
2018
Photo credit: Erykah Dellenbach
3D printed gestures made by a visitors to the Chicago Cultural Center. The gestures are printed at the actual scale in which it was originally made. The full titles piece refer to the words spoken while the gesture was made.
2018 | Installation view: Dimensions variable
Photo Credit: Kip Wilkinson
This is a 3D printed gesture made by Tim Samuelson, Chicago’s Cultural Historian, that also responds to the configuration of space. He described his experience of moving through the book stacks that once occupied the room. The left side, from the viewer’s position, shows the extension of the gestural movement upwards to indicate the light bulb in the ceiling he describes.
Metal Bookcases in Multi-Level Tiers That Had Glass Floors so You Go in These Spaces That Were Just This Little Corridor and a Little Light Bulb in the Ceiling: Stacks (Tim S.)
2018 | 3D Printed PLA plastic, paint | 22 x 19 x 9 inches
Photo Credit: Kip Wilkinson
There Were So Many Interesting, Unique Pieces, Objects of the Civil War Collection, Special Collections (Kathy)
2018 | 3D Printed PLA plastic, paint | 16 x 15 x 10 inches
And It Will Carry All the Way to the Other Side, Whisper Chambers, (Tim J.)
2018 | 3D Printed PLA plastic, paint | 16 x 20 x 10 inches
Photo Credit: Kip Wilkinson
This Kind of Smooth, Spiraling Shape, The Grand Staircase, (Cindy)
2018 | 19 x 21 x 11 inches
Photo Credit: Kip Wilkinson
My exhibition at the Chicago Cultural Center records personal narratives, memories, and responses to this public landmark by capturing spontaneous gestures that accompany speech.
Recordings took place during a three-month Artist Engagement Residency at the Chicago Cultural Center, which was formerly the Chicago Public Library’s main branch. Participants included a former librarian and archivist, Chicago’s Cultural Historian, and drop-in visitors from the public.
I translated the data that resulted from these conversations into one large-scale sculpture and ten 3D printed pieces: nine in the gallery and one in the window space on the south side of the building. Through these material interpretations of gesture, I wanted to leave a trace of the individual’s memory in a physical form in the space and to provide the viewer with the opportunity to reflect on the way multiple individuals’ memories are part of the collective experience of public monuments.
“In the Center There Were Librarians” and Other Gestures, is part of Tuned Mass, curated by Greg Lunceford at Chicago Cultural Center, September 7, 2018 – January 6, 2019.