A Torn Tapestry

Holly Morganelli

Quick!
Name a topic that is at once redundant and silenced within the American tapestry. Yes! And for 1 trillion dollars in Dubya’s tax cuts, the answer is social class. The mainstream media packages the illusion that we are all middle-class, gives it the seal of approval and sends it around the world. We are spoon-fed the idea (by politicians) that all Americans are born with limitless opportunity. On the flip-side, contemporary art and left-wing publications have bombarded us with images of American poverty and the hypocrisy of the white guys in power.

Paul Graham, Large House with Dodge, 2002

It’s been done again and again…and again.
So who in their right mind would dare to tread these waters for the ump-teenth
time? In what could be described as artistic valor, British photographer Paul
Graham traveled from coast to coast in search of fresh representations of
American racial and social divisions to generate his latest collection of works
entitled “American Night”. Recently shown at P.S. 1, the collection presents 63
contrasting landscapes of the African-American urban experience and the ever-thriving
“American Dream” of suburbia. Just don’t expect clichÃ¯Â¿Â½.

style=’font-size:8.0pt;font-family:Verdana’>While recent efforts in
photojournalism underline themes like social injustice or capitalist greed,
Paul Graham’s photographs collaboratively evoke an even stronger motif: the
chasm between both issues. The homogenized suburban homes are sterile and
unappealing upon first glance. Due to its faÃ¯Â¿Â½ade-like quality, Large House
with Dodge, taken
from a distance with the backdrop of a cloudless blue sky, implicates the
inaccessible goal of financial success for the lower classes. There are no
signs of human activity. The house seems vacant and impersonal. This austere
imagery is juxtaposed by the congested portraits of African-American
urban-dwellers who appear disturbed. We are drawn into their world with
unsettling intimacy, bewildered by feelings of guilt and sobriety (or one would
hope). Graham’s subjects bear injuries or disabilities as badges of their
victimization by society, yet his 7 photographs of solitary houses more vividly
portray disillusionment. This apparent discrepancy begs questions: are we, as
active participants in the “American Dream”, living in our own existential
misery? Can we comprehend the grapples of the oppressed or do we merely build
an immunity, or a large house, in which to disappear? The raw simplicity of the
houses speaks with resonance and brings thematic comparison to the works as a
singular entity.

A Torn Tapestry – Holly Morganelli

A Torn Tapestry