15.03.1997 | 04.05.1997
READING ROOM | BETTY SPACKMAN, ANJA WESTERFRÖLKE

Reading Room was a multi-media installation in SAAG's upper gallery which linked that space to its former life as a public library. Here, the books have been removed and the empty shelves plastered over. The stories the books once contained were accessible via two computers, and embodied in related sculptural objects which were bagged, tagged, and either hung on racks or stuffed into corners. Stories were broadcast through two speakers outside the old library entrance which, left ajar, revealed the books themselves, abandoned in haphazard stacks or bulging cartons. Spackman, who grew up in Southern Alberta and now practices in Toronto, and Westerfrölke (Linz, Austria) researched the history of how two Lethbridge institutions came into being, which prompted an inquiry into how, once established, each of these cultural 'shrines' stores, retrieves and mediates public and private information.

Reading Room stories can be read HERE

Organized by the Southern Alberta Art Gallery with funding assistance from The Canadian Council.