Stunning, thought provoking, and constructed entirely of obsolete encyclopedias, this is the work of artist Guy Laramee. As part of his series Biblios and The Great Wall, Laramee has carved landscapes and ancient monuments out of outdated reference books, elevating them once again - to art. If ever there was a crowd who would be interested in a project like this, I thought it would be you guys. Check it out.
These landscapes were recently featured on Colossal and I found them really profound, especially in light of a question we recently posed about using old books for artistic purposes. Laramee's work got me thinking about the countless outdated books, papers, and data that were once resources for millions of people, and are now languishing in a sort of purgatory of uselessness. Seeing such bygone sources of information presented this way is both beautiful and sobering to me.
According to Laramee's artist's statement
Mountains of disused knowledge return to what they really are: mountains. They erode a bit more and they become hills. Then they flatten and become fields where apparently nothing is happening. Piles of obsolete encyclopedias return to that which does not need to say anything, that which simply IS. Fogs and clouds erase everything we know, everything we think we are.
•Read More: Guy Laramee has a wonderful collection of work up on his site, much of which addresses man's handling of the natural world.
(Images: As linked)
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Holy cow! That's amazing!
Unbelievable! He is really very talented.
My parents have two sets of old encyclopedias that they believe has value. I've tried to tell them that they don't, since for example, Russia is described as the U.S.S.R. They've tried to sell them and donate them but no one seems to want them. Does anyone have any ideas (other than using them to create art) of where we could sell or give them away to?
@jenniferbnyc: That's a great question! As far as I can see, most suggestions are to donate them to places like the Salvation Army, Goodwill, local theaters (who can use them for set dressing), local schools (who can use them for art or special projects). I also found that some libraries accept donations of old reference books to sell (I'm not sure to who?) to raise money...hope that helps!
@jenniferbnyc Remember, that outdated information is only worthless to people looking for current info. Historians would LOVE that old set. Or people interested in studying culture, society... etc. Those encyclopedias are a time capsule. They tell you not how the world is now, but how the world was when they were published, and more than just the facts (USSR versus Russia), the society in which it was born (look at the prejudices that are surely present when talking about indigenous peoples, African-Americans, communists, etc.) In fact the more I talk about it the more I'd love them! But please don't just toss them!
Beautiful work! Thanks for linking to Colossal, very interesting site. Loved the giant kinetic toothpick portrait of San Fran: http://www.thisiscolossal.com/2011/04/one-man-100000-toothpicks-and-35-years-scott-weavers-rolling-through-the-bay/?src=footer