Libby Fashionable ’95 Is Transferring Public Coverage With Artwork

Courtesy Libby Modern ’95

“I’m interested in how these projects turn into small experiments,” says Modern

Libby Modern ’95 wanted to know what their neighbors would need to ditch their phones for the weekend. In 2017, she took an old library card catalog to her art studio in Lancaster, Pennsylvania and painted it mint green. Every drawer – or every tiny telephone hotel room – had a number that corresponded to a pink hotel keychain on the wall. Nearby were brochures offering advice on how to survive the weekend off-grid and buttons that read “Please be patient” that your neighbors can wear if they look lost without Google Maps. She called the project “Phonotel”.

Some people really wanted to give up their phones. Others, she says, “would have this laundry list of reasons why they couldn’t.” But eventually most of them gave in. They were surprised by the experience. “It was about addressing the problem of how we’re increasingly on our screens and can’t really exist without them,” says Modern. “How do we get people to understand this? How do we get them to realize that they are only following these rules? ”

Modernity’s answer to such questions is almost always art. The Princeton history graduate worked for a graphic design firm in San Francisco before opening her own design studio for environmental and social justice companies. She began the community engagement work that now defines the installations that were born in her Lancaster studio, which she called Modern Art.

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“I’m interested in how these projects become small experiments,” she says, “then (there) there will be a direct passage to a certain policy.”

Her latest project, slated for autumn, involves redesigning the town hall meeting. Does the local government listen to its residents? Do residents pay attention to officials? Modern formed a group of local artists and other creative types to attend city council meetings and translate them into paintings and performances for the community. It’s an experiment that is about “having a meeting instead of just sitting there,” she said. “This starts a conversation to figure out how we’re going to think about moving these meetings to another form that is more productive.”

Modern was also behind an interactive installation for the local public library entitled “Don’t Forget How to Read”. Visitors were encouraged to bring a book to Modern’s curated reading corner, which is in the gallery’s window. In a quiet, subtle way, their project conveyed the library’s simple message: to showcase the joy of reading. Soon after, a number of stores across Lancaster jumped in and offered to swap their mannequins for an armchair and reading lamp.

By the fall, Modern plans to unveil their latest solo project, a collection of paintings and videos depicting the fictional story of amphibious mathematicians finding a way to breathe underwater. Earlier this year, the city’s building committee asked if Modern could design 35 vinyl banners to cover the fences of a construction site in central Lancaster. they wanted to cover the eyesore with art. Modern returned to the committee with printing of the upcoming installation. Each panel, she said, displays a vignette from the story along with clues to help solve the mystery of a character’s disappearance.

“You can go by and get parts of the story,” she said. “People find it very confusing, but just the right amount of confusion. Confusion that leads to curiosity. “She hopes that this will give them more in return.

Below are images courtesy of Modern from “Let’s Suppose These Things Are Like the Truth: A Strange Account of the Meliflutions,” the site fence installation that tells the story of amphibious mathematicians.