09 September 2002

ARTISTS CHOSEN TO CREATE WORK FOR THE PEEPHOLE SERIES

The Seattle Public Library and the Seattle Arts Commission have selected seven artists to create library-related temporary public art projects as part of The Peephole Series.

Like a peephole in a construction fence, the artwork series is intended to provide the public with insights into the development of the new Central Library and to promote discussion about the place a 21st century library holds in a democratic society. The artwork will be staged throughout 2003, leading up to the opening of the new library late in the year.

The new 362,987-square-foot Central Library was designed by Dutch architect Rem Koolhaas in a joint venture with Seattle-based LMN Architects. The building is currently under construction at 1000 Fourth Ave.

The artists are:

Larry Stein, a Queen Anne audio producer, reporter and documentarian. He has worked locally with KUOW and Jack Straw Productions, and nationally with a number of organizations, including the Los Angeles Philharmonic and the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles. Stein will create an audio documentary, Seattle's Living Room: The Library, which will feature library activities such as book discussions, reading times, and performances. The work may air on public radio, or be featured at listening stations in the Temporary Central Library, 800 Pike St.
Jim Woodring, a University District cartoonist whose comic book work is known nationally. Woodring plans to develop an animated cartoon in which his best known character, Frank, explores four or five books selected from the library's collection. Upon opening each book, Frank would experience an enormous change, finding himself placed in an environment and situation reflecting the book's subject.
Helen Lessick, a Mount Baker conceptual artist, whose projects combine satire, humor, and intellectual inquiry. Past projects include Collect Em's, collectable cards for Safeco Field, and Metro Hair Survey, an illustration of hairstyles designed as a bus route map. Lessick plans to create Decimal·Points, bookmarks that explore the library through the Dewey Decimal system. The bookmarks, which will be distributed free to library users, will examine the Library as archive, architectural icon, technological hub, community center, cathedral of knowledge, and instrument of democracy.
Ellen Sollod, a Capitol Hill artist who has an extensive history of site-integrated public artwork. Past projects include Seven at Swedish Medical Center and Time Piece for the Renton Transit Center. Sollod has proposed creating Circulation Account, a set of LED (light emitting diode) displays designed to illustrate the circulation of books by displaying the three-digit Dewey Decimal category for each book as it is checked out or returned.
Edie Whitsett, a Licton Springs set designer who has worked with the Intiman Theatre, Seattle Children's Theatre, Pacific Northwest Ballet, and Seattle Opera Association. Whitsett plans to create a set of toy theaters illustrating books in the Library's collection. The theaters, housed in small boxes, could be viewed through peepholes at the construction site, or through viewing devices in the Temporary Central Library. Each toy theater might illustrate a book, a single image, or a line of poetry.
Stokley Towles, a Capitol Hill performance artist who incorporates oral history and local anecdotes into site-specific performances. His an Archaeology of manhood: a dig into the male mind, performed in a trailer at the University of Washington campus, included performance-lectures and a "dig" for early manhood. Towles plans to mount a series of lunchtime performances about the present life and history of the Central Library. The work will incorporate personal narratives collected from library staff and patrons, facts and anecdotes about the physical and social history of the site, images and artefacts.
Franklin Joyce, a Central District new media artist who has worked with film, video, sound, and projection to create installations and Web-based work in the United States, Canada, and Japan in settings ranging from galleries to corporations to dance parties. Joyce plans to create a six-channel outdoor sound installation to create a passageway of animated sound incorporating interviews, ambient and generated sound.
The panel of arts professionals and library staff members who selected the artists included: Brent Curtis, director of Secluded Alley Works; Kay Kirkpatrick, artist and librarian with The Seattle Public Library; John Pai, artist and arts administrator; Nancy Pearl, executive director of the Washington Center for the Book at The Seattle Public Library; and Rene Yung, artist.

Washington state artists in all media were eligible to apply. Project budgets range from $2,500 to $10,000.

The artists will work with staff members from the Library and the Arts Commission to develop their ideas. The Seattle Arts Commission, a city department working to increase public awareness of and support for the arts, is managing the Library's public art program.

Voters approved the new Central Library in 1998 as part of the $196.4 million "Libraries for All" bond measure. The plan calls for improving or replacing all 22 branch libraries, building five new libraries and building a new central library. The newest library, the 5,600-square-foot Delridge Branch, opened June 29.

The new Central Library will feature an innovative "book spiral," which will allow patrons unprecedented access to the Library collection. The crystalline steel-and-glass structure contains five platforms - each devoted to a specific programmatic cluster. Four open spaces are housed among the platforms, where Library patrons can meet, search the Web or read. For more information, visit the Library's Web site at www.spl.org.

(For more information, call Caroline Young Ullmann, Library communications assistant, at 206-615-1627.)

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Content modified: 11 September 2002

12/30/2005