At Bootle Library, until 9th November, there is an intimate exhibition by Jenny Gaskell, inviting you to eavesdrop on a series of important inner monologues, with you ear, literally, to the wall.
The shelves, tucked away behind computer desks, and past the watchful eye of library staff, are a sensitive intervention in an existing and essential community space. So no, this isn’t a library take over, or a repurposed building. It’s a living space, filled with people, who, I image from the context, are at least occasional users of the building.
As a listener, you’re invited to hear their personal thoughts, which are available online by invitation and behind a password protected wall. Much of the content isn’t wholly broadcastable, not because its profane, or offensive, but because its personal. So everything you hear is a recollection or framing of a moment in the life of the speaker.
There are reflections on suicide, anxiety and trauma amongst light hearted moments of joy, where funny reflections on aging and positive experiences of discovering identities are mixed in to a recounting of the moment of realisation that they wanted to live.
And none of it is fleeting. Each recording is around five minutes long, played through the base of a 3D-printed beaker. So for five minutes, you lean into a wall, cold plastic against your ear, and listen intently. An exercise I’ve done once since childhood until now, and which feels equally intrusive and revealing.
But the invitation to eavesdrop removes the guilt. The recordings offer the participants’ words warmly and kindly.
And all the while, you’re stood in a library, next to local people using the internet, reading the paper, and taking classes. In every sense, you’re invading this space. In every sense, you’re not meant to be here. But you’re welcome. You’re an appreciated visitor, because you’re willing to spend time adding context to lived experiences you haven’t had, in order to learn from others.
This was one of two exhibitions by Jenny Gaskell in Sefton Libraries in October. The other, at Crosby ended in October, but With My Ear to The Wall runs until 9th November at Bootle Library, in collaboration with Rule of Threes.
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With My Ear to The Wall, at Bootle Library until 9th November
Words, Kathryn Wainwright