projects
reading room
grizedale library
ways of living
the librarians
passerby
yes yes y'all
interactiva
kingdom
zoo art fair
cosmic transformer
static commotion
archipelago
salon d'oro
fleamarket
fleeting archipelagos
reading room is a growing video library of reading performances. Texts are chosen by readers specifically for the collection and filmed in their personal contexts, either home or workplace. As a result the library includes an eclectic mix of literature, poetry, biography and science while each video is also an encounter with the personal space of the reader. The project is ongoing, mapping over time a sense of collective thinking. Aside from building a video-text database the project plays with different recording scenarios or installations that feed in and out of each other, utilizing props such as a purpose-built stage as a backdrop for shared experience or publications as a parallel outcome.
the library will be available to view at www.reading-room.tv
episode I (reading room: nought to sixty, ICA London, 2008):
reading room (episode I) was set up as a purpose-built reading stage of hexagonal plinths and screens. The reading session involved a number of invited guest readers taking up the stage and utilizing it for their individual performances. The event aimed to create a space of production as the readings were filmed in the gallery, simultaneously opening the event for feeding into other, future pieces of work.
Reading Room, Nought to Sixty, ICA, London, 2008
photos: Benedict Johnson
Readers: Florian Roithmayr & Sam Dowd, Ruth Höflich, Laura Cull, Hilary Koob-Sassen, Linden St John, Peter Donaldson,
Claire Hooper, Maria Benjamin, Alistair Hudson, Eva Stenram, Adam Sutherland
acommpanying programme published by guestroom.
episode II (reading room: we, lizabeth oliveria gallery, Los Angeles, 2008):
in addition to re-using the performance stage of episode I as a backdrop to watching an edited film of the ICA reading performances, this installation also included a screening of the first batch of home readings as a beginning of the video library.
installation view and video stills, lizabeth oliveria gallery , los angeles, 2008
this project was kindly supported by the British Council awards for artists