Tyler Hewitt & Dan Jarvis Exhibition Opening Friday, May 28, 2010 6:30pm - 8pm McCord Gallery, 9602 West Creek Road (130th St. at La Grange Ave), Palos Park, IL | |
of the suburban experience.
Dan Jarvis’ photographs explore a contemporary suburbia in which the imagined
optimism of previous decades has been replaced by a reality of inertia and
isolation. Utilizing multiple images arranged in a sea of white paper, the work
explores the unrestrained, expansive nature of the suburban landscape
contrasted with the claustrophobia and trapped feeling often felt by its residents.
These photographs of interior and exterior spaces critique over
commercialization and the growth of an unsustainable suburban ideal that
appears optimistic on the surface while it consumes both the landscape and
personal identity.
Tyler Hewitt works in alternative process photographic printing and screen-
printing. His photographs and collages utilize 1950’s and 1960’s era mass media
ephemera, primarily homemaker’s magazines, home design and decorating
magazines, and craft and hobby books. This source material is appropriated,
reassembled and recontextualized, uncovering the socializing nature of this
material and its reinforcement of traditional gender roles. Simultaneously, his
work questions the overly optimistic portrayal of the expanding suburban
landscape and lifestyle found in these books and magazines.
Together, the work of Tyler Hewitt and Dan Jarvis illustrates an unrealized
dream soured by time and reality. This is not a dystopian vision. Rather, it is a
snapshot of an unrealistic and unachievable ideal, and of the uncomfortable
reality that has developed in its wake.
The exhibit runs May 25-June 20. The exhibit and opening reception are free and open to the public.
Also stay tuned for a group show at Blue Star Wine Bar in Noble Square (1209 N. Noble Street
Chicago, IL 60642) featuring photographs from a recent road trip south to Memphis with Ashley Kamin & Rick Majewski. More on this later, but you can sure there will be plenty of wine and cheese.
