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| Sheila Levrant de Bretteville |
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Search:Literature
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Completion Date:
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1998
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Medium:
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Etched Granite Stairs
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Dimensions:
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7" risers
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Location:
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Queens Borough Public Library
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Address:
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Flushing Regional Branch, Main St.and Kissena Blvd., Queens
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Architect:
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Polshek and Partners
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Sponsor Agency:
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Queens Borough Public Library
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Design Agency:
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Department of Design and Construction
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For her project
Search:Literature
, Sheila de Bretteville recognized the link between the library and its community of former immigrants and their subsequent generations. As the haven for the search for information, the library is a key starting point in the search for knowledge. Sheila researched the quest and journey stories that best represented the various literary cultures of the groups living in Flushing. She then sandblasted a selection of titles of these 'search narratives' on the granite risers of the steps leading up to the Library, often in the script of the original language as well as in English. These familiar titles appeal to passers-by who then enter the library. The titles of famous literary searches remind the visitors that searching for information at a library has much in common with the search of an immigrant.
About the Artist...
Sheila Levrant de Bretteville received her Bachelors degree in Art History from Barnard College, Columbia University in 1962 and went on to earn her Masters of Fine Arts in Graphic Design from Yale University School of Art and Architecture in 1964. She is currently Professor and director of graduate studies at the Yale University School of Art in New Haven, Connecticut. Her former teaching experiences included Otis Art Institute of Parsons School of Design and the California Institute of the Arts where she co-founded The Women's Building, "a public center for women's culture." Since 1970, Sheila has worked in print graphics, designing numerous award-winning publications on art and culture as well as designing magazines and newspapers. Since the late 1980's, Sheila has fabricated many public art projects that have incorporated communities and their histories.
Artist Quote...
I searched for a metaphor that would combine a basic immutable aspect of the Library as well as the Flushing community which has historically been a place where immigrants come in search of freedom, in search of a better life. I though about how we go in search of something when we go to the library; we ask for help from the librarian, search in the card catalog, the computer and through the shelves. Searching for something, going on a journey to a new place also describes the experience of the immigrants who have come to Flushing throughout its history. I realized that one thing the people who have come to Flushing all share is an experience of searching. Narrative literature in which a person or creature goes on a journey in search of something exists in each culture and these stories are known by virtually everyone whether the story was told to them by a grandparent, acted out in the village or read in school. -- de Bretteville
