Witstable Biennalle
Shelf - An exhibition exercise
(2010)

5th Whitstable Biennale
Whitstable's main beach

Shelf
Curated by: Jim Hobbs

I am unpacking my library. Yes, I am. The books are not yet on the shelves, not yet touched by the mild boredom of order.
I cannot march up and down their ranks to pass them in review before a friendly audience. You need not fear any of that. Instead, I must ask you to join me in the disorder of crates that have been wrenched open, the air saturated with the dust of volumes that are seeing daylight again after two years of darkness, so that you may be ready to share with me a bit of the mood – it is certainly not an elegiac mood, but, rather, one of anticipation –from Unpacking My Library, Walter Benjamin

This last December, as I moving my studio, I came across this book which an old friend had given me a few years ago. As you do when you find something of interest when reorganizing your life, I stopped packing, sat down for an hour or so, and thumbed through the pages again. The quote stuck with me, and is in part, why I am writing to you now. And it will probably help answer the question as to why I sent you an image of a shelf . . .