:: Flying Books or just Language of the Birds ::
At the corner of Broadway & Columbus, in North Beach, 23 “books” suspended with stainless steel aircraft cables fly above carrying the words of some 90+ authors central to San Francisco literary history. Unveiled at the end of November 2008, and sponsored by various city organizations and private donors, the “Language of Birds” is the first solar power-offset public art work in California.
falling in a chaotic and random form, words and phrases sprinkle the sidewalk below in Italian, English and Chinese.
Originally the brainchild of Brian Goggin, but with assistance from Dorka Kheen (a local political activist), David Shearer (a local scientist) and City Lights Bookstore, this luminary, unique site-specific gem is added to this bustling urban sprawl. At night when illuminated by LED’s these polycarbonate animated books give passerby’s another chance to take a momentary lapse from their thoughts and gather their own perceptions and meanings out of the patterns of this “flock” or from the characters permanently etched into the sidewalk.
While “Language of the Birds” is a reference to the ancient Greek and Celtic mythological way of communicating with the divine, it was also perceived by followers of the Kabbalah as the secret key to perfect knowledge.
Sorry I don’t have a night time photo of this piece. I will have to come back and update this.
For more information and background on this project click here or here.
