Now this is great conceptual art:
For one amazing week in November, Adobe Bookshop in San Francisco has agreed to allow its estimated 20,000 books to be reclassified by color. Shifting from red to orange to yellow to green, the books will follow the spectrum continuously, changing Adobe from a neighborhood bookshop into a magical library—but only for one week.
Why this is great art: (a) I can visualize what that must be like from its conceptual description, but (b) I can't begin to imagine what it will feel like. As opposed to so much conceptual art that does nothing but state its concept.
Why can't I imagine what it will feel like? Maybe because this art happens in the form of a room. And the room -- as Ibsen and Pinter knew -- is a site that we recognize and respond to primally. Rooms, caves, same thing really.
So I'll go.
I'll be in the dark green section.
sounds like an ideal excuse for a blogger meetup to me... I would LOVE to be in a room like this. (I once had a friend who organized her sock drawer by color. This might mark her as OCD by some but it was a beautiful thing, less arbitrary than other ways.)
(I don't do this.)
(But sometimes I wish I had enough different colors of socks to make it worth considering.)
Posted by: Pica | 2004.11.05 at 18:36
Books about women's fashion frequently suggest that clothes closets be organized by color, but it's tougher than it looks to achieve. (What to do with all the patterns? Plus, this method uses a lot of space.) A bookstore organized by color--wow! I would love to see it. Hope you will post pictures!
When I worked in a library, it was not uncommon for patrons, when requesting help finding a book they'd seen previously, to describe the book by size/color. ("It was humorous poetry for children, about so big, and red.")
Posted by: Beth | 2004.11.07 at 10:59
Yes, do post pictures! Sounds great.
Posted by: dave | 2004.11.07 at 14:14
Powell's has different color rooms.
But you don't have any real sense of color when you are in there.
Posted by: susurra | 2004.11.08 at 21:25