Vox Poplar
Vox Poplar
- Creator: Janet Zweig
- Date: 2016
- Location: Library! at Bown Crossing
- Types: installations (visual works), interactive art
- Materials: metal, paper (fiber product)
- Collection: Site-Based Works
Vox Poplar is an installation that begins with a large, flat roll of archival paper that hangs from a hub on the stone wall – approximately 28,000 linear feet of 4.5” wide paper. An image of Poplar trees, carved in bas-relief, appears on the face of the paper. Poplars belong to the genus Populus, and are common in the Boise area. The paper then feeds into an antique manual typewriter, which rests on a vertical sliding mechanism. The typewriter can be raised up and out of the way when not in use, and lowered when writers are ready to type. Originally conceived as a generative piece, writers from The Cabin would visit the library periodically and interview residents. From those interviews they will write texts – either poetry or prose – and type them out on the typewriter. The title is a play on the Latin term Vox Populi, meaning “voice of the people.”
