Susan Ossman

Waves
of Knowledge
Site- specific installation
Old Redondo Beach Library
CA-101 exhibition,
August/ September 2022.
in collaboration with
Sunshine Blanco
Rupert Cox
Waddick Doyle
Deirdre Gilfedder
Ann Henstrand
Stephen James
Lydia Nakashima-Deggarod
Olga Sezneva
Pryia Srinivasan
Zhiyi Wang
Waves of Knowledge conjures parallels between the flows of knowledge and the currents of the Ocean. It invites reflection on the stories, inventions and scientific discoveries that have traveled to California from around the Pacific Rim. Currents of translucent paper flow from the windows, spilling book covers, scientific formulas, faces of authors and artists and pictures of inventions into the library. Concepts and biographic entries in different languages and scripts spread across the floor like flotsam thrown up on the beach. The installation invites viewers to imagine how these and so many other ideas, creations and inventions were transported from around the Pacific to California over ocean or radio waves, by internet and in immigrants’ suitcases or imaginations.