Eight copies of the 1987 edition of the Los Angeles Yellow Pages, offered as a reading area to browse at the audience's leisure, laminated like the Argos catalogue to preserve the delicate paper.
Although seemingly impossible to track down (trust me, I've tried) these 8 copies have been sourced in order enact and test J.G. Ballard's fantastic premise:
“I have only stolen one book in my life, and that was a copy of the Los Angeles Yellow Pages, which I took from my suite at the Beverly Hilton hotel. This was in 1987 when I attended the premiere of Steven Spielberg's Empire of the Sun. A Hollywood premiere is an extraordinary event, but in many ways it was outclassed by the LA Yellow Pages, which I read during a bored moment. It struck me that I should hang on to this precious volume which transformed my holiday at the expense of Warner Brothers. What is interesting about the LA Yellow Pages is the picture it gives of real life in Los Angeles, so different from the glitzy world of film premieres, stars and directors. There are more psychiatrists listed than plumbers, and more dating bureaus than doctors, and more poodle parlours than vets. Like the classified advertisements in newspapers, which provide a picture of the readership, the Yellow Pages of any great city reveals its true underside. The Los Angeles Yellow Pages is richer in human incident than all the novels of Balzac.”
JG Ballard, The Guardian, Weekend Travel section, 2007.
(This quote would go on the press release or handout listing the works, available at the front desk, so you could read them without knowing the above story)
The books are to be displayed on a series of tables. I have chosen three standard picnic tables as they are inviting, familiar, unfussy and approachable. They are also adaptable, should people want to sit facing the other way to view works on the wall, or simply use them to meet and chat at, or even for larger group discussion, about the exhibition or other activities within the Centre.
The tables are to be placed in a cluster the centre of the room, so they are embedded within the exhibition and reflected in both the mirror works.
YOUR INPUT: If you have a better idea for the reading area furniture, that still fits the above criteria, please feel free to design one.
The tables are to be placed in a cluster the centre of the room, so they are embedded within the exhibition and reflected in both the mirror works.
YOUR INPUT: If you have a better idea for the reading area furniture, that still fits the above criteria, please feel free to design one.
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