NINA KATCHADOURIAN: Special Collections

Joseph Clayes III Gallery

NINA KATCHADOURIAN

Special Collections

September 21–November 16, 1996

New York-based artist Nina Katchadourian challenged many of the preconceptions people have about libraries, including how the books are arranged, and that libraries are quiet places, by creating an alternative library experience. In the gallery space, she set up a “reading room” of sorts, grouping books by size, shape, or using the title to create witty statements. In the center of the gallery space were three teeter-totters with books balanced on either side, a metaphor for the balancing of ideas and thoughts. She used the titles, as well as the weight, of these books to balance the teeter-totters. Further challenging the ideas of what a library is and should be, the customary silence was broken by whispered voices and muffled sounds, recordings made by the artist and placed behind the compact disc and record collections.

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