creativaty

The Book Nook

This was a really fun project on creating a physical sculpture to provide for the second International Rebellion Week with Extinction Rebellion in London, 2019.

I wanted to provide something positive to the spaces we occupy, and I thought that a library was a nice way to help spread information and give people a quiet space to sit and read amongst the wild times that a rebellion can bring.

I went to an incredible place called The Forge, a community-created project in an empty lot in Edinburgh with shipping containers that contain all sorts of amazing tools! For wood cutting, metal cutting, welding….etc. There are also all sorts of salvaged materials to use, as well as amazing volunteers that help you learn and create with the variety of tools. I even learned to weld, it was pretty cool. I felt like the girl in Flash Dance. We later wove willow branches to create a frame.

What I love most are all the aspects of help I had from so many different people to create this little bicycle-towed book nook!

It was entirely made out of found objects and salvaged parts, gave people a cosy place to sit, and it even turned into a delivery cart, a storage space for speakers for a dance party, and then the bookshelf later turned into a spice rack.

Thank you to Surya for the base pallet, and the whole general build! Thank you to Jo Vegetables for all the fresh willow branches from her gardening job, to Maddie for more willow branches and the fabric to place over the frame! Thank you to Ali for the fairy lights, to the Forge for the wheels, seat, and old wine crate for the book shelf, to Naomi for the little metal lantern, to the Edinburgh Student Housing Co-op for a workspace, to Alice for saws and tools, to Paul and Liam as I used some fabric from their old gazebo for waterproof material, to Andrea for helping me tie the fabric down, to Ruadhan for lending activist books, and to Robert for packing it all into a van to take it to London!