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The Rules of the Game
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Exhibition Guidelines
“The fact would seem to be, if in my situation one may speak of facts, not only that I shall have to speak of things of which I cannot speak, but also, which is even more interesting, but also that I, which is if possible even more interesting, that I shall have to, I forget, no matter. And at the same time I am obliged to speak. I shall never be silent. Never.
Samuel Beckett The Unnamable |
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“The aesthetic dimension still retains a freedom of expression which enables the writer and artist to call men and things by their name---to name the other
unnamable.”
Herbert Marcuse |
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“...the unnameable ‘essence’ of the name is that which
conjoins a possible and a prescription.”
Alain Badiou |
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Many individuals historically have interfaced with the library as a source for further enlightenment, research, and information gathering. From Karl Marx, Sigmund Freud, and James Balwin to the Unabomber, the library has functioned as a place of the possible, and the impossible. The singularity of this possibility and impossibility is what I will prescribe as the unnamable
name. It is potentially a politics leading many to revolution, or “terrorism”.
Isn’t this why the library has become an ongoing battle ground for surveillance vs privacy issues, especially after 911?
Artists were asked to create work for underused non-art spaces inside the Tompkins County Library in Ithaca New York. This unnamable art appeared as
sightings, un-bindings, and unidentified objects locatedin the “gaps,” “voids,”and “empty” places between the categories of information and entertainment the typical library visitor is usually in search of. The artwork worked to address the persistence, repetition, and notion of the unnamable, as sightings between identity or naming of a category. |
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