Readymades American Roadside Artifacts

by Brouws, Jeff; Brouws, Jeff

• ISBN13: 9780811836777
• ISBN10: 0811836770
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2003-02-01
• Publisher: Chronicle Books

Summary

Jeff Brouws has crisscrossed the country for two decades, documenting an America that is at once quintessential and peculiar. Readymades is a quirky, multi-layered catalog of this ascendant photographer's work: partially painted pickup trucks, bowling alley signs, vibrant-hued houses that defy the monotony of the suburbs, abandoned drive-in movie theaters. Brouws treats his subjects as readymade art found in the landscape, brought together to create an idiosyncratic roadside panorama. Provocative essays by leading writers and cultural commentators such as Luc Sante, DJ Waldie, M. Mark, Diana Gaston, Bruce Caron, and Phil Patton are juxtaposed with these images of all that is unique in the uniform, and striking in the mundane.

Author Biography

Jeff Brouws who has been photographing American culture over the last 15 years. His previous books include Highway: America's Endless Dream and Twenty-six Abandoned Gasoline Stations. He lives in upstate New York.

Table of Contents

Places in Between	8	(15)
Diana Gaston
Freshly Painted Houses
Ticky Tacky	15	(20)
Jeff Brouws
Language in the Landscape
The Emancipated Word	35	(24)
D. J. Waldie
Abandoned Drive-Ins
Enormous Bodies in the Night	59	(20)
Luc Sante
Farm Forms
Heartland	79	(17)
M. Mark
Partially Painted Pickup Trucks
Trucks in Progress	96	(32)
Phil Patton
Twentysix Abandoned Gasoline Stations
Regarding Ruscha	128	(33)
Jeff Brouws
Freight Cars
Halfway Home	161	(30)
Joel Jensen
Signs
The Annotated City	191	(18)
Mark Frauenfelder
Trailers
Marooned	209	(22)
Bruce Caron
Bowling
Ten-Pin Tap	231	(16)
Wendy Burton
Storage Unit
The Will to Box Up	247	(23)
Alan Rapp
About the Contributors	270	(2)
Acknowledgments	272