Middlescapes

Middlescapes sets in motion a conversation, with two American artistic traditions, in the context of today. The first — the euphoric spirit of the Precisionists of the early 20th century. Artists who were enthralled by the rush of modernity on the American landscape, constructing geometrical images not because their medium demanded it — nor as the reality of the seen — but to offer a speculative gloss over the everyday. Their subject matter at once reflecting a specific imaginary of progress, and the material embodiment of technology within society. In doing so they offer a speculative modern American vernacular. The second — a kind of counter factual to this euphoric spirit in the post-war social documentary photographic movements. In their work we see evidential realities that are deeply connected the very same modernity – now with the gloss brushed off. But there is a “trick of the eye” here too, as the photographer can never be simply a capturer of evidence. In their different approaches we the co-existence of a hard truth and empathetic sensibility, that allows for redemption for subject matter and in turn society. And in this the establishment a critical American vernacular. And this is where we find Middlescapes. An imaginary place found in reality. Where we hear the whisper of past utopias. In our mind's eye we share a collective dream. We wishfully idolize the formal structures found in the landscape, as if they can be in and of themselves. And in its history, the future.