The Eye: A space both visually stimulating and intellectual
By: Anne Ray
Special to The Examiner
November 22, 2008
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| Where: Prelinger Library, Room 215, 301 Eighth St. (at Folsom Street), San Francisco. (Courtesy photo) |
SAN FRANCISCO — Today’s artwork chosen by Courtney Fink
AGE: 36
OCCUPATION: Executive director, Southern Exposure
NEIGHBORHOOD: Noe Valley
THE PIECE OF ART I LOVE: The Prelinger Library
WHY DID YOU CHOOSE THIS PIECE? It is part library project, part public art project, part art installation, part archive and part information center. This is not just a piece, but an epic project encompassing an infinite number of ideas. It is an intellectual preserve with a strong visual element. I think of it as the ultimate cabinet of curiosities, which I am free to explore.
HOW DID YOU DISCOVER IT? I started hearing about it from friends and met the Prelingers because they are regular visitors to Southern Exposure, the nonprofit visual arts organization I run in the Mission District. Then, of course, I visited.
WHAT DO YOU MOST LIKE ABOUT IT? The freedom to browse. What could be more fun than walking up and down the aisles browsing, reading, learning and happening upon things you never knew existed? I think their open-source, “appropriation-friendly” approach is critically important. I also particularly like the way it is organized. The first row begins with the local, concrete and place-based (with strong regional leanings) and then eventually works its way to the abstract and theoretical, then to math, sciences and otherworldly.
