Events › Exhibit: The Emergency Was Curiosity

Point Reyes Library presents The Emergency was Curiosity by Christie George, on exhibit for the month of February.

This deeply collaborative, interactive exhibit takes as its starting point Jenny Odell's How to Do Nothing. It's an illustrated book report, exhibition and series of events.

The exhibit opening is on Thursday, Feb. 1^st from 6 to 8 pm. Attendees will choose from multiple interactive activities to engage in art and think meaningfully about presence and attention. Christie will collaborate and/or host other related activities for the exhibit throughout the month. The reception is generously co-sponsored by Mesa Refuge.

Schedule of Events:

Thursday, Feb. 1, 6 to 8 pm : Opening at the Point Reyes Library 

Friday, Feb. 2, various locations and times: Office Hours with Christie George (sign up here) 

Saturday, Feb. 3, 10 am to 12:30 pm: Birdwalk at the Tomales Bay Trailhead with Sonoma County Feminist Bird Club. Register here.

Tuesday, Feb. 20, various locations and times: Office Hours with Christie George (sign up here)

Tuesday, Feb. 20, 6 to 8 pm: Silent Book Club at the Point Reyes Library

Tuesday, Feb. 27, various locations and times: Office Hours with Christie George (sign up here)

Tuesday, Feb. 27, 6 to 8 pm: Silent Book Club at the Point Reyes Library

Artist Statement:

This project started during the first pandemic summer in 2020. I had left my job, was sheltering in our new home in Monte Rio, and found myself returning to a book I’d read the year before: Jenny Odell’s How to Do Nothing. I began to reflect on the book, at first through hand-drawn illustrations, watercolors and collages. Next, I started to write - inspired by Jenny’s ideas about the interconnectedness of species, and ways to cultivate individual creative attention. As I thought about how practices of attention could help us know ourselves and each other better, this work became my own practice of attention.

I loved working on this project, which I started calling a “book report”. I loved to read and draw and write and follow the threads of whatever it was I was reading, drawing and writing. I began sharing it with people, and then I started thinking about how I could share it with more people. Could it be its own book? Or an art show? What does an exhibition about a book that’s about another book look like anyway?

As I planned this exhibition, I hoped it would help people notice the patterns of their own attention - help you connect to where you are, to the people around you and to yourself. We’re experimenting here. What works for me might not work for you. What works for you might not work for someone else. We’ll try a few different things. You don’t have to try all of them. (There is no gold star if you do all the activities. Though if you want a gold star, I left some out for you. Take one. You earned it.)

I know it may not seem that way, but the stakes are high. Someone, or something, is always trying to direct our attention. It may as well be us.

The book report is me sharing what it was like for me. This exhibition is me asking what it is like for you. I hope you will tell me.

More about the artist:

I have been working at the intersection of media, politics and technology for more than 20 years. For the last decade, I ran a progressive investment fund called New Media Ventures, and I now advise foundations on impact investing and narrative change. Past creative projects have included a series of zine-making workshops to help people process their pandemic experiences, and a crowdfunded billboard campaign against Islamophobia in San Francisco. My work has been included in Southern Exposure’s Annual Juried Show This Will Never Work and the This Is What I Want festival; and I produced the award-winning documentary feature Hunting in Wartime (PBS). As a producer and maker, I have a particular interest in collaborative and ekphrastic art, especially work that explores and expands the idea of collective authorship.

For disability accommodations please phone 415-473-3220 (Voice), CA Relay 711, or e-mail library@marincounty.org at least five business days in advance of the event. The County will do its best to fulfill requests received with less than five business days’ notice. Copies of documents are available in alternative formats, upon request.

Para adaptaciones por discapacidad, por favor llame a 415-473-3220 (Voz), Servicio de Retransmisión de CA 711, o envíe un correo electrónico a library@marincounty.org al menos con cinco días hábiles de anticipación al evento. El Condado hará su mejor esfuerzo para satisfacer las solicitudes recibidas con menos de cinco días hábiles de antelación. Hay copias de los documentos disponibles en formatos alternativos, previa solicitud.