Playing house: artist Ian Strange creates an eerie portrait of American suburbia
From 2011 to 2013, the Brooklyn-based artist Ian Strange artistically defaced abandoned houses across the United States – in Ohio, Michigan, New Jersey, Alabama, New Hampshire and New York – documenting each one to create 'Suburban', a cinematic photo and video installation now on view in Standard Practice’s pop-up exhibition space in Lower Manhattan.
Originally from Australia, Strange searched for houses that had a certain iconic quality to them, embodying his outsider’s perspective of the suburban American Dream. He then painted, burned and spray painted images on the homes (with permission of the local communities) to visually ‘archive the emotions of the people who lived in them’. The resulting series of eight houses has an eerie, post-apocalyptic quality to it, reminiscent of the Southern Gothic style as popularly depicted in True Detective or Cormac McCarthy's novels. However, Strange didn’t choose the sites to make a statement on rural America; rather, he selected them for their specific architectural features and his ability to obtain permission to use them.
Strange’s process began with sketching and drawing on paper, gathering inspiration from each home’s surroundings. ‘I like to paint on the houses – it’s a conscious act on the house,’ he says. ‘Painting the house one colour makes it lose its specificity and compresses it into one giant object.’ When explaining why he opted to burn two of the houses to the ground, Strange says, ‘It was the final work for this series. The other houses could still function as homes, even though they were painted; I wanted to offset that aesthetic destruction with a literal destruction.’
Combined with the poetic quality of filming and photographing the isolated houses, ‘Suburban’ challenges the standard view of the home as a permanent structure by exposing its vulnerabilities.
INFORMATION
‘Suburban’ is on view until 30 May. For more information, visit Standard Practice’s website
ADDRESS
Standard Practice
136 Bowery
New York, NY 10013
Wallpaper* Newsletter
Receive our daily digest of inspiration, escapism and design stories from around the world direct to your inbox
-
Space Un celebrates contemporary African art, community and connection in Japan
Space Un, a new art venue by Edna Dumas, dedicated to contemporary African art, opens in Tokyo, Japan
By Nana Ama Owusu-Ansah Published
-
Get to know Issey Miyake’s innovative A-POC ABLE line as it arrives in the UK
As A-POC ABLE Issey Miyake launches in London this week, designer Yoshiyuki Miyamae gives Wallpaper* the lowdown on the experimental Issey Miyake offshoot
By Jack Moss Published
-
Eurovision unveils its 2024 stage, designed by Beyoncé's Renaissance Tour creatives
This year's stage design aims to bring the audience into the performance more than ever before.
By Charlotte Gunn Published
-
Surreal, uncanny, seductive: step into Graham Little’s world
Scottish artist Graham Little presents his first US retrospective at The FLAG Art Foundation in New York
By Hannah Silver Published
-
The cosmos meets art history in Vivian Greven’s New York exhibition
Vivian Greven’s ‘When the Sun Hits the Moon’, at Perrotin in New York City, is the artist’s first solo exhibition in the USA
By Emily McDermott Published
-
The Met’s ‘The Real Thing: Unpacking Product Photography’ dissects the avant-garde in early advertising
A new exhibition at The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York explores the role of product photography and advertising in shaping the visual language of modernism
By Zoe Whitfield Published
-
Detroit Institute of Arts celebrates Black cinema
‘Regeneration: Black Cinema 1898-1971’ at the Detroit Institute of Arts (DIA) brings lost or forgotten films, filmmakers and performers to a contemporary audience
By Anne Soward Published
-
BLUM marks 30 years of Japanese contemporary art in America
BLUM will take ‘Thirty Years: Written with a Splash of Blood’ to its New York space in September 2024, continuing its celebration of Japanese contemporary art in America
By Timothy Anscombe-Bell Published
-
Todd Gray’s sculptural photography collages defy dimension, linearity and narrative
In Todd Gray’s New York exhibition, he revisits his 40-year archive, fragmented into elaborated frames that open doors for new readings
By Osman Can Yerebakan Published
-
Frieze LA 2024 guide: the art, gossip and buzz
Our Frieze LA 2024 guide includes everything you need to know and see in and around the fair
By Renée Reizman Published
-
New York artist Christopher Astley showcases an alternative natural world
At Martos Gallery in New York, Christopher Astley’s paintings evoke an alternative natural world and the chaos of warfare (until 16 March 2024)
By Tianna Williams Published