Postcards from America
‘America is neither dream nor reality. It is a hyperreality. It is a hyperreality because it is a utopia which has behaved from the very beginning as though it were already achieved. (…) It may be that the truth of America can only be seen by a European, since he alone will discover here the perfect simulacrum – that of the immanence and material transcription of all values.’ (Baudrillard, 2010)
‘Postcards from America’ is a visual travelogue consisting of photographs taken in the United States between 1998 – 2006. Adopting the perspective of a British, European photographer / traveller, the images depict commonplace architectural facades and street scenes.
This series of photographs was initially published as a set of postcards using offset lithography and later exhibited in London and Athens.
The conceptual treatment of photographs as objects, vernacular forms concomitant with themes of travel, location and mobility are themes commonly explored throughout Adams’ practice. While the images explore relationships between the ‘heterotopic’ role of the traveller who pursues the exotic and the tourist who assimilates the familiar, the postcard format embodies both ritual and pragmatic uses.
French philosopher Jean Baudrillard’s theory of the ‘Simulacra’ is explored and referenced throughout these images. Thematically the project explores the subdued iconography of the United States evident in the banal everyday America in response to what Baudrillard refers to as being imbued with ‘the perpetual present of signs’ (2010, p82). The inclusion of architectural facades and details that reference European cities also point towards a quintessentially American form of utopianism based on a self-conscious reworking of its colonial heritage. In this regard, the project is also a study of the landscape and architecture as an indicator of the social and cultural as well as topographic information. By juxtaposing the formal simple beauty of natural elements with minimal architectural details, a sense of hyperreality is achieved. Plants and trees resemble man made constructions, while facades often appear as scaled down maquettes depicting the idealized visions of city planners.
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Selected images from this project have been featured in the book ‘Postcard’ by Laurence King and designed by Flat 33. Other images from this project were exhibited at the Renaissance Photography Exhibition in 2012 and also as part of a group show ‘Simulacrum’, selected by Richard Billingham at the Elysium Gallery in South Wales. More recently one of the postcards was posted to Athens where it was exhibited alongside other mail art in the 2015 Platform Projects, Art Athina.
References:
Baudrillard, J. 2010. America. London. Verso.