Haunted Words | Or, Drowning My Library
(In the Waters of Hogan's Creek)
Th3Rivers | A Contemporary Exploration of the St. Johns Lower Basin
Karpeles Manuscript Library, Jacksonville, Florida
April 9 - May 29, 2021
Photos by Jefree Shalev; Video by Jay Decosta Peele
Two Weeks Later, April 24, 2021
Five Weeks Later, May 15, 2021
May 15 Photos and Video by Noah Lunberry
For a group exhibition at Jacksonville’s Karpeles Manuscript Library, eight large glass jars were filled with water taken directly from the adjacent Hogan’s Creek, a stream that flows into the nearby Saint Johns River. Each of the jars contained four to five books packed tightly inside and submerged in the murky water. Once filled with the water and books, the jars were closed and set atop cinder blocks, each of them then covered in sheets of thick plastic.
Arranged in a circle upon the wooden floor of the library and animated by light from the adjacent stained-glass windows, the books and their draped pedestals appeared translucent and nearly numinous, like whirling dervish set in motion within the library’s stillness and calm.
Over time, the books in the jars gradually transformed. The muddy water from Hogan’s Creek included many tiny organisms that had been inadvertently scooped up in the transfer from stream to library. Many of these creatures could be seen swimming through the water and crawling across the books. For the two-month duration of this installation, as the days and weeks unfolded, the activity and engagement of these organisms became increasingly evident, adding a degree of drama to the room’s otherwise tranquil arrangement.
As the water in the jars settled, the books inside slowly decomposed, the titles obscured, the covers crumbling, their words losing their legibility in the haze of darkening water.
Unexpectedly, a small minnow had been caught in the water in the move from the creek to the library and, dead and decaying, could be seen in the jar, eventually settling into the abundant mustache of Friedrich Nietzsche.
Arranged in a circle upon the wooden floor of the library and animated by light from the adjacent stained-glass windows, the books and their draped pedestals appeared translucent and nearly numinous, like whirling dervish set in motion within the library’s stillness and calm.
Over time, the books in the jars gradually transformed. The muddy water from Hogan’s Creek included many tiny organisms that had been inadvertently scooped up in the transfer from stream to library. Many of these creatures could be seen swimming through the water and crawling across the books. For the two-month duration of this installation, as the days and weeks unfolded, the activity and engagement of these organisms became increasingly evident, adding a degree of drama to the room’s otherwise tranquil arrangement.
As the water in the jars settled, the books inside slowly decomposed, the titles obscured, the covers crumbling, their words losing their legibility in the haze of darkening water.
Unexpectedly, a small minnow had been caught in the water in the move from the creek to the library and, dead and decaying, could be seen in the jar, eventually settling into the abundant mustache of Friedrich Nietzsche.
Haunted Water | Or, Finding the Fire line (May 3, 1901)
Hogan's Creek, adjacent to Karpeles Manuscript Museum
They all fail, but this one failed most fully.
And so now to find in the failure a lesson . . .
Of a brief and incomplete "writing on water" installation, undermined finally by the unrelenting and imperceptible tidal undercurrent of the creek (along with its troubling toxins), pushing and pulling the letters, the haunted waters resistant to their own inscription.
Photos by Carolyn Brass
Many thanks to Brett Waller, and the IAM Residency, for sponsoring and organizing this exhibition, "Th3Rivers,"
and, once more, to Carolyn Brass and Jefree Shalev for their assistance.
and, once more, to Carolyn Brass and Jefree Shalev for their assistance.
Copyright © 2021 Clark Lunberry. All rights reserved.