Photos: Florencia Aleman, Barbara Fried, Katia Fuentes, Yvette Fuentes, Brian Goggin, Mathiew Johnston, Jay Kravitz. Karen Mulraney, Denisse Romay, Jeremy Sugerman

Set against the new Lafayette Library a giant wavering bronze stack of paper rises. Had one taken a page from every book in the library collection – stacking one on top of the other – a stack of paper equivalent in height to this sculpture would result. The towering sculpture winds and teeters reaching absurd, precarious proportions. Wind has caught the top pages blowing them across the outdoor plaza, up and through the stairway corridor. Some pages furl in mid air, flying above the walkways while others wrap around trellis posts, past the library walls. Each fluttering page is precisely etched with “drawings” created with layers of text and graphics from the library's books. The pages glide through the walkways creating a visual flow inspired by the natural air currents streaming through architectural gullies and star and planet constellations.

The bronze pages allude to all pages ever printed. The etched pages use as their pallet imagery scanned directly from books drawing from all sections of the library's book collection such as philosophy, literature, math, poetry, history, biography, science, and of course art. The dispersing pages fluttering out from the toppling stack is inspired by the library collection’s grand expansion in size and new knowledge platforms beyond books. The expansion is visually alluded to in this site-specific installation – the metamorphosis of how we learn is captured by the dynamic, dreamlike flight of the bronze pages wafting gracefully through the air.

Credits:
Brian Goggin - artist
Dana Albany – sculpting assistant
Artworks Foundry
Rebeca Bollinger – design and layout assistant on page designs
Eric Chavez - 3-d modeling assistant
Simon Chiffens – sculpting assistant
Lidia Cortina – sculpting assistant
Simone Davalos - project management (first half)
DeCrevel and associates - etching
Degenkolb Engineers (Andrew Scott and Ray Pulgeisi) – structural engineering
Megan Fenske – design collaborator and fabrication of unveiling veils
Karl Gillick – head rigger, design fabrication and installation
Corbett Griffith (Instinct) – engineering
Al Honig – page sheering assistant
Jay Kravtiz – rigging assistant, fabrication, graphic design and installation
Gino Kremple – sheering and engraving
Kreysler and Associates – enlarging facitities
Oliver Lowe – fabrication of unveiling veils
The Oakland Museum (Cherie Newal and Carin Adams) - admin and project management
Overaa - on site contractor support
Dennise Romay - general assistant
Deborah Sciales – fabrication of unveiling veils
Studio Romo (Dan Romo and Chris Edmunds) - page patina and page welding
Natalie Villalobos - project management (second half)