November 12, 2018 Illuminus 2018 Sheds Light on Old Corner’s legacy
For the second consecutive year, HBI’s Old Corner building has been a featured canvas for the annual Illuminus light festival in downtown Boston. Last year, HBI unveiled an augmented reality project “Look Again” that used smart phones and tablets to overlay 150 years of photographic images of the Old Corner Bookstore building over the historic building.
Boston artist Jenny Mae Kho chose the Old Corner this year for her installation “New American Scholar,” a series of three video installations that drew connections between 19th century literature and philosophy – some published from the Old Corner Bookstore – and matters of justice, gender, race and reading today.
Kho’s installation was one of 27 large and small installations throughout downtown Boston that drew thoughts to the neighborhood on Friday and Saturday, November 2nd and 3rd. Inspired by the rich literary history of Boston and the Old Corner Bookstore, the projection of light and sound explore the passions of writers and activists such as Frederick Douglass, Margaret Fuller, Henry David Thoreau, and Ralph Waldo Emerson. According to Kho, “By remixing their texts for today, we rediscover work that remains as relevant and revolutionary as it was almost 200 years ago.”
Kho’s three consecutive projections from the evening are available on Vimeo:
- New American Scholar
- Brahma by Ralph Waldo Emerson
- On Books