The point of no return
This post is about the good ol'America… and my salute to its railway development of which played a significant part in the country's economic growth since the nineteenth century, that forever changed its vast landscape, introduced new meanings of the leisure life voyage to those that benefited from the "modern" capitalism and perhaps encouraged aspiring bandits? Well, I am not promoting lawlessness here, I mean, the railway development had thus also commenced the film genre of Westerns in which bandits blew up trains that fascinated audience with its suspenseful scenes of train robbery that perhaps helped harbored many childhood fantasies of cowboys and bandits.
At apexart and organized by CUNY Ph.D. candidate (whom previously served as the editor of Artforum) -Brian Sholis, is an exhibition called The Permanent Way.
This exhibition consists of not only photographs by contemporary artists depicting immense plains of nature and trains or left-over train-tracks but also vintage train maps issued by the government, real-photo post-cards dating back to 1909 and 1910 when it was the modern memorabilia à la mode.
At apexart and organized by CUNY Ph.D. candidate (whom previously served as the editor of Artforum) -Brian Sholis, is an exhibition called The Permanent Way.
This exhibition consists of not only photographs by contemporary artists depicting immense plains of nature and trains or left-over train-tracks but also vintage train maps issued by the government, real-photo post-cards dating back to 1909 and 1910 when it was the modern memorabilia à la mode.
Upon entering the gallery space, there are these large and crisp prints by Jeff Brouws of the railway landscapes that are breathtakingly mystical. As if inviting you to enter into a fair-tale-like scene of what once upon a time was a prolific site traveled by many of American ancestors. Even though the tracks are no longer in operation today, but here the images represent what has been left off of what once had been the high point of this victorious industrious development that affected the modern American life for better or worse. These images visually convey a long-loss romance of capitalist venture and freedom and mobility .
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Justine Kurland Doyle, CA , 2007 C-print 40 x 50 inches courtesy of Mitchell-Innes & Nash Image courtesy apexart.org |
Ah… nostalgia! My favorite and abundantly self-indulging sentiment… these old photos depicting the advent of steam engines and the unforeseen disasters, and thus prevailing the society of spectacle. Here the postcard (below) depicts a mass of onlookers of a derailed train and a collision of an epic scale. Like the mass participants of public spectacle in contemporary culture, many look rather amused with awe at the accident while a few others look concerned and puzzled. Certainly, the situation appear grim and catastrophic, however it also seems as if an inevitable entertainment for the mass- which is to say, finally something "fun" that would be worthy of working up a public neurosis. As well as transpiring most interesting debates over dinner tables. Surely, the matter would not have been taken lightly, the topic perhaps ranged within heated arguments about modernization; its advantages versus its negative impact on everyone's lives.
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Wreck in Yards, Port Arthur ca. 1910 Real-photo postcard 4 x 6 inches Collection of Luc SanteImage courtesy apexart.org |
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Murder on the Tracks 1909 Real-photo postcard 4 x 6 inches Collection of Luc Sante Image courtesy apexart.org |
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