This post was originally published on August 7, 2013.
As someone who loves both reading and climbing trees, I was thrilled to come across The Reading Nest by Mark Reigelman, an installation piece at the Cleveland Public Library which was inspired by mythical objects and symbols of knowledge. Today, Mark shares his inspiration and process. -Holly
Library as Incubator Project (LAIP): Tell us a little about your background and you as an artist. What inspires your work?
Mark Reigelman (MR): My background is not very colorful. I grew up in a small town on Cleveland’s west side to two loving parents and a wonderfully crazy younger sister. My father was a machinist in the Army and my mother a nurse. I spent all my time drawing, painting and building. However, it wasn’t till my senior year in highschool that I discovered that I could spend my life being an “artist”. My highschool art teacher said, “Mark, you know that you can go to college for art and become an artist.” My life changed in an instant. The world made sense. I studied sculpture and industrial design at the Cleveland Institute of Art and continued my studies in Advanced Product Design at Central St. Martins College of Art and Design in London. I have been in New York city ever since where I investigate site specific objects and installations. Here in New York the inspiration is endless; from music and architecture to interaction and art. There is a constant supply of inspiration entering my brain.
LAIP: How did The Reading Nest come about?
MR: Each year the Cleveland Public Library has an open call to artists to execute a temporary installation in their Eastman Reading Garden. I decided to submit a proposal titled The Reading Nest this year and was chosen from a few hundred applicants. I am a site specific artist so location is incredibly important in every installation I create. I was inspired by the Eastman Garden’s feeling of refuge within downtown Cleveland. I was also inspired by natural symbols of knowledge like trees and owls. The Reading Nest is a sort of intermediary between forest and fowl and symbolizes knowledge and community.
I want visitors to be enchanted by the installation. I want them to feel like they are walking into a fairytale.
For centuries objects in nature have been associated with knowledge and wisdom. Trees of enlightenment and scholarly owls have been particularly prominent in this history of mythological objects of knowledge.
The Reading Nest was created with discarded wood boards that were obtained through local Cleveland industrial and manufacturing sources. A basic wooden 2″x4″ armature was built and reinforced with 200′ of steel cable. The armature was cladded with over 10,000 discarded palette boards which were held in place by approximately 40,000 nails. It took a team of 5 guys 10 full days to complete the installation. The final work stands approximately 13′ tall and 36′ wide.
The Reading Nest is comprised of 10,000 reclaimed boards. 4,000 of these boards were left raw and weathered while 6,000 were painted with a gold exterior paint. The exterior of the nest is a combination of raw boards and golden boards while the interior is completely covered in golden boards. During the day the installation offers a powerful glow and an intense experience for visitors. This color choice was inspired by the legendary Griffin. This king of beasts, with the rear body of a lion and the head and wings of an eagle, is said to have made it’s nest of pure gold and, as such, protected it ferociously. The Griffin is regularly seen sculpted from stone and standing guard at the entrances of civic buildings across the country including The Cleveland Public Library.
LAIP: How have libraries influenced you as an artist? What would your ideal library look like?
MR: All of my work involves a lot of research. I am constantly at libraries searching through troves of historic books and documents looking for the various pieces of information. Libraries have been invaluable to my work. One day I will design a library and it will be awesome: Parthenon meets Dr. Seuss.
LAIP: What five books do you think every library should have for artists’ use?
MR:
- Interaction of Color – Josef Albers
- The Giving Tree– Shel Silverstein
- The Catcher in the Rye– J.D. Salinger
- The Picture of Dorian Grey– Oscar Wilde
- Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community– Robert Putnam
More images of The Reading Nest can be found online. All photos by Mark Reigelman and Bob Perkoski.
Mark A. Reigelman II is an internationally recognized Brooklyn based artist specializing in site-specific product design, installations and public art. His intent is to reshape aspects of the urban landscape in order to provide fresh interpretations of local history and character. By favoring the process of research and exploration over promoting personal artistic agendas Reigelman has a unique body of work poised between abstraction and literal representation, guided by a clear conceptual foundation. By questioning expected qualities and identities, his work is able to convey ideas, generate conversations, and promote novel, yet enduring, engagements with its audience. Reigelman’s work has exhibited in public spaces, galleries and museums across the country including the Museum of Art and Design (NYC), Museum of Modern Art (NYC), Oklahoma City Museum of Art, Cleveland Museum of Art and the Shanghai Museum of Glass in China. For the past three consecutive years Americans for the Arts have recognized Reigelman’s public art installations (Manifest Destiny!, White Cloud and Wood-Pile) as being among the top 50 public art installations in North America. Mark is a member of the American Design Club (AmDC) and co-founder of the New York based creative collective Art Stars and bi-coastal public art collaborative Chapman/Reigelman. Reigelman has worked with designers such as Isaac Mizrahi, GyBell, Ron Gilad, Dror, Montana Knox and Rockwell Group and has been included in publications such as Sculpture Magazine, The New York Times, New York Magazine, FRAME (Netherlands), L’uomo Vogue (Italy), Public Design (Korea) and Tele Star (France).
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