In an age of recycling, as
attested to by several museum exhibitions such as the one now at the UCLA/Fowler
Museum (Recycled, Re-Seen: Folk Art from the Global Scrap Heap),
it is refreshing to see an artist whose intent is to transform castoffs
of our society into a library, a Bibliotheca Memoria. This futuristic
library’s contents reflect the scarcity of resources making those
materials valuable which we so easily find expendable today. But such
glories may be discovered in this installation, a major work by Gaza
Bowen, who has transformed the entire gallery space into a
library/reading room, complete with reference collection made of
salvaged metals and assorted material scavenged by the artist. It is a
library in which one can interact with 25 books, all created by the
artist.
Besides bookshelves, there are reading areas with table, desks, chairs
and lamps (ah, such lamps, perhaps the heaviest in the world, one
weighing 80 pounds), and naturally, metal books made out of metal boxes,
scavenged bolts, screws, hinges, gears, chains, and so much more. Even
the stands for the metal books are recycled, as are the wall coverings
(some from an old swimming pool). But the books really speak to the
viewer and are accessible to the hand. These books are meant to be
"read" with the eyes and the hand, telling intimate stories,
allowing the viewer to reference these bits of detritus into jewels of
memory.
Some favorites are the Pipe Books, with recycled pipe as the
binding structure, or a two-volume set depicting the Movement of
Energy through Space, with one made up of gears, and the other of
chain. The metal has taken on a wonderful set of patinas and hidden ways
to tell the "reader" how to turn the page. An Encyclopedia
Memoria is a work in progress, each group of letters depicted in a
metal volume, where the artist has found items to reflect the letters in
question. Bowen’s intelligence and sensitivity is reflected in each
item in this transformative installation.
From age and decay, the artist shows so much respect for materials we
throw away. The wall coverings, the bookcases (there are three with book
covers made out of scrap metal which are enclosed on the shelves) and
the rest are transformed into an evocative place recalling time and
memory, decay and restoration, layers of memory and transformative
reverence. It is a show you will remember.
