The Tower of Banned Books is an art instal lation built from hundreds of challenged and banned books\, symbolizing th e ongoing fight for intellectual freedom.
\nMcCray will share the jo urney of the tower - from its origins as the Surveillance Tower\, which re ferenced our everyday keyboards and the data they collect\, to its transfo rmation into a striking statement on book bans and censorship. \;
\ nRead McCray&rsquo\;s full statement below: \;
\n&ldquo\;The Tower of Banned Books installation depicts the weight of censorship through the ages while amplifying the on-going saga of books fa cing untold challenges in libraries\, schools and bookstores\, including w orks by contemporary children&rsquo\;s and young adult authors. The sculpt ural installation is comprised of 500 &ndash\; 600 used books\, opposing c onvex mirrors and an armature. The top of the tower is crowned with a chao tic assemblage of open books that are heavily redacted with red reflective tape.
\nThe banned book tower was first introduced to the public in the 2023 Artist Project at the Better Living Centre/CNE grounds. It was t hen installed at the Toronto Reference Library towards the end of 2023.&nb sp\;
\nThe Tower of Banned Books was modified from the original Surv eillance Tower that was exhibited at the Indexing Resistance group show fe atured at the Toronto-based Plumb Gallery in 2022. \; The Surveillance Tower was titled as such due to the exterior surface of rows of unbound f ore-edges of books that referenced our innocuous keyboards\; the same keyb oards compiling our personal data collected and sold through our social me dia sites. The floor and ceiling convex mirrors were added to the inner co lumn of the tower\, weaving the reflected banned books to infinity. \; \;
\nIn this talk\, I will trace the journey of the book tower from its early inception to its current banned book tower theme and beyond .&rdquo\; \;
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Photo of the Tower of Banned Books\, take
n by Ian MacLeod.
Artist Biography:\n
Kelly McCray has exhibited and curated extensively over the past 30 years. His Tower of Banned Books was exhibited at the Ar tists Project and the Toronto Reference Library in 2023. His Surveillance Tower was installed at the Plumb in 2022 for the Indexing Resistance group exhibition. The steam portraits were exhibited at the Gladstone Hotel for the 10 x 10 Portrait Project and in 2015 Stephen Bulger Gallery hosted hi s Lens Krafter books. His 2003 Ken Portraits series\, was exhibited at the MOCCA and in 2001\, the Gnawts Project was exhibited in the Breath Taking at Gallery TPW\, for which he received the Pollock-Krasner award.
\nCuratorial and Co-curatorial projects include the 2013 Rare &\; Raw sh
ow for the Leslie &\; Lohman Museum in New York as well as numerous Edw
ard Day Gallery exhibitions. In 2016\, he curated the First Canadian Place
Gallery and public lobby spaces from 2014 to 2019 and was co-founder of t
he Artists Protest Projects for the 2019 Nuit Blanche projection walls. He
completed his MFA at York University in 2021.
Follow Kelly on
Instagram at @kellymc
cray7590.