Summer is in full bloom at Cleveland Public Library (CPL). Starting in June, British artist Rebecca Louise Law will transform Brett Hall in the Main Library with one of her signature immersive installations. Law’s work, made from tens of thousands of individual flowers, interacts with a building’s architecture, while encouraging viewers to wander among different botanical specimens.

Curated and managed by LAND studio, Law’s exhibit at CPL will be called The Archive. Her otherworldly installations have been created around the world, and each is unique to the spaces and to the plants, flowers, and other natural objects that comprise each project. The overall effect of her artwork is a mesmerizing experience that integrates the colors and smells of our natural world with the built environment.

Cleveland-based architecture firm Walker and Weeks designed the Main Library, which opened its doors to the public in 1925. Brett Hall is a grand civic space that has recently hosted exhibitions as part of FRONT International, as well as shows celebrating the library’s unique collections of Superman ephemera, a traveling exhibit of Shakespeare’s influential First Folio, and an in-depth exploration of the world of puppetry. Honoring the 100th anniversary of the opening of Main Library, Law’s installation seeks to invite Clevelanders to the downtown campus of their library, as well as attract visitors to experience the artwork.

Critical to Law’s process is the engagement of dozens of volunteers who help collect and string the florals and ensure each of her projects is rooted in the community where it’s installed. LAND studio has also developed partnerships with local hospitals, funeral homes, and florists to donate plant material that would otherwise become waste.

The Archive is the fifteenth installment of See Also, an annual series of temporary artwork at Cleveland Public Library supported through the Lockwood Thompson Endowment. Lockwood Thompson was an avid library supporter who believed that the visual arts should be accessible to all people—and that libraries were a perfect venue for connecting people to great works of art.

The Archive opens on June 15andwill be on display through May 2024. It will be open during library hours—10 am to 6 pm Monday through Saturday—and other special events. For more information about the exhibit and past See Also installations, visit cpl.org/exhibits.

LAND STUDIO
1939 West 25th Street, Suite 200
Cleveland, Ohio 44113
216.621.5413
land-studio.org

EVENT:

The Archive: Installation by Rebecca Louise Law, June 15–May 2024.

Cleveland Public Library Main Branch