Flying Books Confuse Drunken North Beach Eaters

Art installation amazes some, confuses others

If you have been sober enough to notice your surroundings while walking around North Beach lately, you may have noticed books flying over your head.

The work of artists Brian Goggins and Dorka Keen's installation "Language of Birds" is catching second looks by North Beach goers.

The work features glowing flying books amongst the backdrop of musicians rocking out on a mural.

San Franciscans may recognize Goggin’s work from his installation at Sixth and Howard, which features furniture, appliances and more popping out of a building’s windows.

Goggin is a 20-year San Francisco native, who spent his youth "making fast money as a childhood magician," he told 7X7 Magazine.

“I specialize in illusion and sublime spectacles,” he told the magazine.

His North Beach installation is nothing different. The work is nothing less than strange. Some passersby loved it when we were there, while others stared in bewilderment about what exactly it was suppose to be.

The new installation is a two-year partnership by the San Francisco Arts Commission and local political activist Dorka Keehn.

"The Language of Birds" features a flock of 23 books suspended above ground. Their binding is their wings that keeps them afloat above the curios, or sometimes inebriated minds, of the walker walkers by below.

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