Curated by Mariko Tanaka

Field Forms brings contemporary art into Freebird Books, with works that connect to artist’s responses to the changing environment. This exhibition seeks to offer innovative practices that bring awareness of a wider ecological context around the form of artistic production. Some works in this exhibit focus on the creative use of recycled items, which become transformed into a new materiality, while other works communicate or advocate broader social concerns with specific sites of memory. Field Forms presents a wide range of mediums with interactive installations, which surveys & activates the bookstore to its local community.

Eve Mosher’s new project on climate migration will locate countries around the world directly affected by extreme climate changes with a visualized mapping system that extends to use the shelves, the yard, the sidewalk of Freebird Books. “An oblong city, between two rivers, with streets like deep canals, all of them straight” is a video exploration by Megan Whiteford, of Brooklyn’s designated bike lanes, a conceptual video which addresses the inefficiency of a car-centric city structure, while presenting a whimsical view of a life in constant transit. John Breiner’s drawing series on books are titled “Planets getting small y’all, with no plans to stop at all” deals with future problems that are getting closer by the day. Aurora Robson hanging sculptures reminiscent of aquatic creatures are made from intricately crafted and dyed discarded plastic bottles.

Hong-Kai Wang’s ‘A Coney Island of the Ear’ casts into remote corners of Freebird bookstore, several listening stations with sound installation that capture New Yorkers at play in Coney Island’s Astroland Park, and serves as a memory to the soon to be gone fairgrounds. David Marshall’s photography captures industrial locations, which conjure up a stark and mimimalistic landscapes at night. Concurrent to her concerns for the current climate crisis and a sustainable ecosystem, Yuko Oda transforms disposable byproducts of this system into new life forms with plastic bags and steel wire. Paul Steffens transforms a hardcover book with peeping holes to capture a passerby’s imagination into secretly hidden tableau.