Renewable by Jonathon Lee
Date
2016-09
Authors
Moon, Becca
Stevens, Jen
Coniglio, Jamie
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Fenwick Gallery, George Mason University Libraries
Abstract
A long standing mission of the library is to gather and preserve information, artifacts, and data in order to make them available for future use. The contemporary library, however, must be more than just a repository. Due to its unique place between the analog and digital world, it must be concerned with both the legacy of history and the pace of technology. It functions as both an information access point and a community center; a place for discovery, congregation, contemplation, interaction, opportunity, debate, escape, entertainment, and research. In order to accomplish this, many libraries have decreased their shelf space in favor of more open, usable space and new digital platforms. This has led many to discard books containing ephemera, marginalia, inscriptions, bookplates, and other unique pieces of historical data, many of which are associated with the history of the institution that collected them. Libraries are a renewable resource. Every day, they provide us with access to countless possibilities. Past information is made new through the lens of our own experience during our moment in history. In each floral arrangement the artist has made, there are words, numbers, and marks that aren’t fully revealed as well as things we all recognize. Flowers are flexible symbols, used to represent everything from love to loss, innocence to desire, life to death. The blooms of spring signal rebirth and renewal, as do the flowers in the work. On the slips, each unique date marks an idea being planted. Each flower is the result of the imagination in bloom. Though the artist is not directly invoking the language of flowers, he works towards encouraging the viewer to explore their symbolic associations outside any specific species.
Description
Exhibition Catalog from Renewable at Fenwick Gallery, George Mason University
Keywords
Libraries, Library Slips, Floral