JEFF BROUWS – TYPOLOGIES, PROJECTS & PORTFOLIOS
2016-11-14Practicing what he terms “visual anthropology” Brouws, over the past twenty-five years, has persistently pursued a body of work that closely examines the evolving American cultural landscape. Taking inspiration from the “anonymous sculpture” studies of Hilla and Bernd Becher, the New Topographics Movement, and the deadpan artist books of Ed Ruscha, Brouws has produced visual archives—focused mainly on architectural forms—that forge his own photographic territory. Without romanticizing his subject matter, the photographs subtly ask us to consider the economic or social forces that have shaped the built environment—from its initial development to its eventual demise.
In 1991, for his Twentysix Abandoned Gasoline Stations project, Brouws began documenting elements of the evolving highway landscape: service stations owned by independent operators (instead of multi-national corporations) were being challenged by new EPA mandates to replace aging underground storage tanks or risk closure. Many, sensing government collusion with Big Oil (as later substantiated by the Los Angeles Times), were unable to upgrade and forced into abandonment. Brouws recorded them at this moment of discard. While doing this project Brouws simultaneously became aware of Ed Ruscha’s book Twentysix Gasoline Stations from 1962. Referencing Ruscha’s title (with a slight modification) he created a body of work reflecting a changing car culture environment vastly different than the era depicted in Ruscha’s photographs—where fuel was cheap, the open road beckoned, and friendlier global relations prevailed. This early project became an act of art “appropriation” that also signaled a growing awareness (for the artist) that every physical structure in the man-made environment is a “tell” that references political, economic, or social relations.
Opposite – Coaling Tower #94, 2014
Exhibition runs through to December 10th, 2016
Robert Mann Gallery
525 West 26th Street
Floor 2
New York
NY 10001
