Nestled within the bustle of Lincoln Road in Miami Beach, artist Dimitry Saïd Chamy has a question he wants to work out: What’s next for literacy in America?
He attempts to piece answers together in Florida International University’s Miami Beach Urban Studio with his exhibition, “The Unreading Room”.
The Unreading Room is Chamy’s take on suppression of free expression and literature, embracing his own love of reading and the current evolutions of book banning and media consumption.
“It’s harder and harder to tell the difference between fact and propaganda,” he told WLRN. “It’s really hard to have the attention span between the two.”
Peering out of the studio through the glass doorways to Lincoln Road, the piece combines Chamy’s personal life, work and observations of literature and literacy today.
Elise Catrion Gregg
/
WLRN
“BANNED”, “America Reads with Pride” and “Support Libraries” are the messages wrapped up in banners and books in The Unreading Room.
It’s a pretty simple looking display: stacks of clothbound books, titles hidden, rest on the floor in front of banners with “BANNED!” printed loudly on the front.
But a closer look shows more. In smaller print, in a repeating pattern reminiscent of a hologram, Chamy’s woven together a string of sayings related to books, reading, and libraries.
They’re phrases like “Support Libraries” and “America Reads With Pride”. They’re almost patriotic — and that’s exactly what Chamy intended.
“These banners are using the language of propaganda to try to make the opposite point that is being drummed to create these book bans,” he said.
Chamy, who is Haitian-Lebanese and grew up in Port-Au-Prince, said literature was massively important to him as a child. He says his parents filled their home with books.
“There was censorship mostly relating to the regime that I grew up under: the Duvalier regime,” he said. “A ‘don’t make us look bad’ kind of censorship.” He was referring to the brutal Haitian dictatorial regimes of François “Papa Doc” Duvalier and later his son, Jean-Claude “Baby Doc” Duvalier, from 1957 to 1986.
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It wasn’t just political suppression that impacted Chamy. A member of the LGBTQ+ community, he said he struggled to orient himself and understand his sexuality.
“As a person that grew up queer in Haiti, but didn’t have access to any materials that could help me understand that, I felt really oppressed,” Chamy said.
Now, he said he’s seen history repeat itself some ways here in the U.S. with the rise of book banning.
“These are things that you don’t think about until they start to become under threat,” he said. “I just couldn’t understand how people that were essentially not readers themselves were being given license to end the accessibility of a book for an entire school system.”
The Unreading Room isn’t meant to be just a creative portrayal of book bans and support for reading. Chamy wants to get his audience involved, too.
Inside, at the entrance to the exhibit, he’s got a space for people to write their favorite quotes about reading, literature and freedom of expression.
“I made an app that is connected to the QR code for this exhibition which has been collecting and displaying these quotes,” Chamy told WLRN. “ We started with about 135 that I’ve seeded myself and researched and now we’re at almost 500.”
“Eventually I’d like it to be a sort of reverse book ban in the sense that the authors could be linked to where you could buy their books,” he said.
Elise Catrion Gregg
/
WLRN
Visitors can share their favorite quotes on literature and reading at The Unreading Room.
The physical aspect of literature is another crucial element for Chamy. He admits he loves his digital books. But physical works have played a role in his other art as well, which is why he included the stacks of books in The Unreading Room.
One graphic design project he worked on as a student used the text “Lingering in the Woods” by author Umberto Eco – flipping the pages sideways, Chamy gave himself a huge margin in the pages to add his own work while incorporating the actual writing.
Chamy told WLRN that he never writes in the margins of his own books. The margins again became a meaningful thing for him years later, though.
He had a partner who ended up passing away from cancer. While going through his belongings, Chamy found a copy of a book they both loved — filled with his partner’s notes in the margins.
“To feel that we had read this book together but separately and then suddenly I had his thoughts in my mind as I was reading it,” he said. “I still have that book, and so I think that books for me, I’ve discovered, are kind of magical objects.”
For Chamy, it’s not just the politics of book banning he wants to address in The Unreading Room. It’s the new world of media consumption and literacy.
“I think that, for example, now we’re in the midst of trying to understand what is factual literacy? What is truth literacy? What is AI literacy? How do we navigate this new world?” he asked.
“We are no longer really reading 19th century novels that took 800 pages. We’re listening to podcasts,” Chamy said. “That’s a different form of literacy. We’re watching YouTube.”
“How that’s changing us is, I think, an open question for all of us.”
IF YOU GO
“The Unreading Room”
WHO: Exhibition by Dimitry Saïd Chamy
WHERE: Florida International University’s Miami Beach Urban Studio, 420 Lincoln Rd., Suite 440, Miami Beach, FL 33139
WHEN: The exhibition opened Oct. 14 and runs through Nov. 22. Visitors are welcomed to the Urban Studios from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. weekdays or by scheduled appointment. The facility is closed Saturdays and Sundays.
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Publish date : 2024-11-18 06:44:00
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