Fun with Public Art: North Beach Sez Yes to Flying Books

Let's get this straight: über- NIMBY North Beach puts the kibosh on development, restaurants— hell, even on events in Washington Square Park. Apocalyptic showdowns, left and right. And yet the nabe's all for the shiny, happy public art ("see, we're open minded, after all!") Next month, the city will install a solar-powered art piece called Language of the Birds at the northwest corner of Broadway at Columbus. The piece, designed for a new plaza of as-yet-unknown name, is a flock of 23 flying, illuminated books made of translucent polycarbonate and designed by artists Brian Goggin with Dorka Keehn. Underneath the books are words and phrases in English, Italian, and Chinese— only natural, being wedged between North Beach and Chinatown— that appear to have fallen from their pages. The installation will take place over 10 days starting Oct. 20th and will get an official unveiling in November— unless the neighborhood rises up against it, NB-style.
· "Language of the Birds" Created for New Plaza in San Francisco [artdaily]

[Image courtesy Brian Goggin with Dorka Keehn, via Artdaily]

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