What The?

Comment

Comment by Resident Curator on March 25, 2013 at 4:05pm

Curator’s Comment:

 

What The?  It’s likely that these works would provide greater depth of understanding if accompanied by the book passages referenced below them.  But as a single scene narrative, What The?  has strong self-referential formal qualities that range from oddly poetic to tragically beautiful.  The bold graphic inclusion of the motel billboard and open mouth- complete with bright white teeth- echoes the small even rows of modular units in the structure behind it.  The individual balconies further intimate open mouths, which both invite and reject potential occupants.  I get a strange feeling of impermanence from the photograph.  The pile of building materials in the foreground suggests systematic demolition rather than revitalization or reconstruction.  The balloons also convey a fading presence, as the two tethered in the bottom right corner of the image move my eyes up above to the unseen horizon.