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February 16, 2007
The “Footprints” controversy: omission of work less disturbing than lack of captions
Atlantic Yards Report
You know Norman Oder is an overkiller when he is more perturbed by the lack of comprehensive information than the possiblity of artwork being censored at the Footprints "art" (not comprehensive display of all matters Atlantic Yards) exhibit.
His overkill instincts aside, maybe Norman is right to criticize the lack of info at an exhibit that can't even get the description right:
I found the newly re-mounted “Brooklyn Footprints” exhibition at the Brooklyn Public Library dismaying, but not so much because the library rejected some politically-charged pieces and claimed, disingenously, “Our interest in this exhibition is in documentation, not advocacy.”
(The New York Observer broke the censorship story, which has been followed up by NoLandGrab, Develop Don't Destroy Brooklyn (DDDB) and the Brooklyn Paper, among others. Is it censorship? Probably in part.)
Even more disturbingly, the library exhibition lacks footnotes that link the artwork to the inevitable political context regarding the proposed Atlantic Yards footprint. There are no descriptive captions, so the “documentation” is quite sketchy. For the relatively few who can see more into the photos, drawings, and paintings, that’s not a problem; for everyone else, it is.
...
When I first saw the exhibition in October, I commented that “some of the documentation available on the web site had not made it to the gallery walls.” That was less a problem, because at least visitors received a postcard pointing them to the Footprints web site, which contains links to informational and advocacy sites about Atlantic Yards. (Update: I'm told the postcards were available on opening night Tuesday. When I visited Wednesday, they weren't there.)
At the library, there are no links, and even the capsule description--"the redevelopment of Brooklyn's Atlantic Yards"--is inaccurate, since Atlantic Yards is a development project, not a place.
NoLandGrab: It's notable that the Brooklyn Public Library didn't want to appear partisan in the debate over Atlantic Yards, because by describing the project as "the redevelopment of Brooklyn's Atlantic Yards," the library proves that developer Bruce Ratner has already won the public relations game.
Posted by lumi at February 16, 2007 12:27 PM