Picture this. You’re an Eskimo (or an Inuit – is Eskimo offensive?). You’re in snowy Alaska and have become lost in the middle of nowhere. You’re on your own. It’s cold. You’re cold. You need shelter. So, you use the skills your misplaced tribe recently taught you and build an igloo. You enter the igloo. You’re not so cold anymore. But now you’re faced with another problem: you’re bored. What do you need to quench your boredom while you hopefully await rescuing? You need some books to read! But you don’t have any books on you, nor a Kindle. You’re in a (admittedly unlikely) rut, aren’t you?
Well, Miler Lagos may have solved your problem. The Colombia-based artist, whose exhibitions have been featured all over the globe, has created an igloo – or a dome – made entirely out of books. Handy, right? The installation, which is called Home and which opened in New York last year, was carefully assembled by Lagos, who painstakingly stacked each individual book (spine facing the interior) to create a self-sustaining dome. Whether or not you can actually remove any of the books to have a quick flick through them I’m unsure – the whole structure may topple down and crush you to death. Just in case, make sure you have a Kindle with you on your next venture into Alaska’s freezing wasteland. [Read more…]