Art By The Book
Queens Library Gallery
By Azi Paybarah
Getting Started
A scale model of the DaVinci Flying Machine soars over your head in the library. |
Preconceived notions of libraries and people who lived in the 15th Century should be kept outside to avoid a dangerous dose of reality.
The Queens Library in Jamaica is outfitted more like a trendy bookstore. The faces of newly released hardcover books look out wantingly; the aisles seem designed for leisurely meandering. The stern voice of an elementary school librarian going on about the Dewey Decimal system is hardly a whisper here.
On the right side of the entrance doors, a series of flat-screen monitors sit facing busy men and women tinkering away on keyboards and mice. Is this a public library or a university? On the left, rows of tables and bookshelves, with enough people to feel like reading is once again a popular pass time.
And all this on the way to the exhibit.
Digging In
Leonardo Da Vinci’s name has become synonymous with art, science and intelligence. How could a single room of exhibits drive this point home? And be entertaining?
Simple. The exhibits are hands-on and the written descriptions are short.
The walls are some shade of pastel yellow. Large, copper objects sit intimidatingly on torn chunks of an unwanted car.
The wall opposite the front doors to the room has a crank Da Vinci created to harness energy from rushing water. “Duh, hasn’t that always been obvious,” one might think. Then, humbly, one reads that the device is the basis of current hydropower plants, and that Da Vinci’s seemingly simplistic invention has been only slightly improved since he first conceived it.
Two giant, U-shaped pieces of wood sit at another station. Immovable, their outstretched arms frame the brief explanation that tells visitors that this safety design for vessels was Da Vinci’s. Again, a seemingly simple idea – which one might assume had no person to single–handely take credit for–that was once again, Da Vinci’s.
Walk under what looks like a flying Batman sculpture over to another deceptively simple display of Da Vinci’s genius. Metallic balls hang from a set of strings aligned like a scale, from shortest to longest. The floor below the balls lift, pushing the balls against the wall, where one wonders…what the heck is this going to show?
Then, the floor is released and the balls swing back and forth. And Da Vinci’s genius takes seconds to materialize.
At first, the balls swing like a snake. Then, after a few seconds, the snake disintegrates and another pattern forms. Every other ball swings in unison. All the even numbered balls are on the opposite side of the pendulum from the ones immediately next to it.
When they finally stop, read the instructions, all the way to the end. The number of swings each ball takes is calculated out. So is the snake-to-alternate swing pattern.
Finishing Up
Amazed for what seems like hours, you may not remember that you are inside the bowels of a library, where learning has always been taking place. It just so happens that this time, we are there when it does.
Thanks, Da Vinci.
Queens Library Gallery
89-11 Merrick Blvd.
Jamaica, N.Y. 11432
http://www.queenslibrary.org/gallery/
10 a.m.-9 p.m. Mon.-Fri.;
Noon-5 p.m. Sat.
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