Access vs diversity in bookshops

I recently visited two of my favorite bookshops in New York, St Marks and the Shakespeare & Co on Broadway. Both shops used to have great philosophy sections. Now they have adopted the approach of presenting larger format books, and turning many of the books face-out. Consequently they now they carry a far smaller selection, barely anything beyond the top-of-the-pops. They've eliminated the one reason why I love going to bookshops: when you search for a specific title, you often find lesser-known works shelved nearby. Now, rather than a dozen books on a particular topic, the shelf only displays two or three. The bookshops appear to have ceded diversity to the Internet, and focused instead on the appearance of ease of access. It is a massive loss for readers.

LoBe - London Berlin Art Kunst

I have been selected by curator Elke Falat to be a resident at LoBe. Founded by Olivia Reynolds, LoBe is project space and gallery in Wedding, Berlin. I will be resident for the month of February, collaborating with artist Ulrike Mohr. We will create artworks that responds to the space, to each other, and to the Berlin context. There will be a gallery opening and dinner at the end of the February to celebrate the resulting artworks, which will be exhibited for three weeks during March.

For images of past exhibitions at LoBe, see their Flickr Stream.

Berlin

I've relocated to Berlin. I'll be based in Berlin while I am conducting research on my practice-based Art PhD. It looks likely that I'll be staying somewhere in Wedding, but I'm still finalizing details. For now I've rented a studio in Moabit. So cool to get back to studio time.