What are the books for?

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Tuesday 24 February 2009
Sarah Eades

I asked our photographer John McIver to pop over to the New Gallery and takesome more photos of the installation of Yinka Shonibare MBE. When he returned with the image below I was totally confused and couldn't figure out what the books were for.

http://cdn.aucklandunlimited.com/artgallery/assets/media/blog-books-for-1.jpg

 

Then after flicking through the pages of what i can only describe as a 'luxurious' catalogue, I realised they are part of the work entitled The Age of Enlightenment - Adam Smith.

Here is an image of the work installed at a previous exhibition.
 
http://cdn.aucklandunlimited.com/artgallery/assets/media/blog-books-for-2.jpg

 

I think in my mind I imagined this as a 'fake' bookshelf. I am humbled to realise I was wrong. Maybe I have spent too much time in the 'virtual' world of the Internetand lost my faith in reality! Who knows what other surprises this exhibition will bring.

image credit (top to bottom)
 
Conservators and registrars carefully unpacking some of the objects for The Age of Enlightenment

Yinka Shonibare MBE The Age of Enlightenment - Adam Smith, 2008life-sized fibreglass mannequin, Dutch wax printed cotton, mixed media
courtesy
 of the artist, James Cohan Gallery, New York and Stephen Friedman Gallery, London © the artist