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Alastair Noble, assistant professor of art, recently set up an exhibition at the Instituto Cultural Peruano Norteamericano in Lima, Peru.
Noble’s installation, “Babel,” is an interpretation of the short story “Library of Babel,” written by Argentine author Jorge Luis Borges. The story speaks of a library that holds thousands of indecipherable books on shelves placed in a hexagonal shaped format.
The installation embraces the image of hexagonal galleries as a series of interlocking hexagonal cubicles. The structure’s walls are made of screen mesh and printed with fragments of poetry in numerous languages. In doing this, Noble created a series of texts that have no logical connection but at the same time exist within the same space.
“The idea of a huge library full of undecipherable books from the story ‘The Library of Babel’ by Borges was the inspiration for my installation,” explains Noble. “I created an architectural framework with panels that looked like open pages of a book. Each of these panels, which were translucent screen mesh, were printed with fragments of texts extracted from a number of poets and philosophers that I have been influenced by over the years including Mallarmé, Marinetti, Beckett, Ferlinghetti, Ponge, Wittgenstein, and Nietzsche. The juxtaposition of these phrases printed in their original languages presented a new multilingual poetic structure that coexists in the same time and space as they would in a library.”
While in Peru, Noble was able to present a major body of his artwork, which was the culmination of his projects over the last five years.
“My installation ‘Babel’ was accompanied by drawings and several series of relief prints that I have produced at international print shops in Chile, Belgium, and England,” he says. “I was very pleased with the exhibition in Peru. I received an outstanding response from the public and news media, and the exhibition was reviewed in all the major national newspapers and magazines. It was a wonderful opportunity to present my work at the Instituto Cultural Peruano Norteamericano, the most prestigious international culture center in central Lima.”
Marissa Halderman ’09 (Rushland, Pa.) is currently performing EXCEL Scholars research with Noble. Halderman, an art major, is building a scale model one-tenth the size of Noble’s “Babel” installation.
“During the planning stages of a previous project, Marissa produced very good models for her proposals,” says Noble. “I then realized she would be an ideal EXCEL Scholar. She has a very easygoing personality, works meticulously and methodically, and clearly understands the requirements of this project. She is majoring in art with a minor in architecture, so this experience will give her an excellent foundation for this choice of study here at Lafayette.”
Noble’s art has been exhibited nationally and internationally for more than 25 years, including at the Peggy Guggenheim Collection in Venice, Italy. His works are part of many private, corporate, and public collections. He is the organizer of several symposia and exhibitions on public art and poetry, contributes regularly as a reviewer for Sculpture magazine, and has published other articles, including a piece in the Journal of Architecture.
For more information on Noble, visit the following links: