In 1987 while living and working in New York I began to notice how subway platform advertisements had a connection to my assembled print images. By the late ‘80s I had come to the realization that assemblage, in its essence, could be defined as binary structure; one added to another. I found the autonomy in the process very comforting, as the individual unit, being acknowledged as unique, contributes value, via that uniqueness. My understanding was that by juxtaposing two individuals, potentially representing the x (0) and y(1) of things, the binary format was capable of that dynamism necessary to conception. In other words, the binary structure follows the format of thesis and anti-thesis and could culminate in the viewer’s process as synthesis. The “diptych” structure in painting represents the idea of using two equal supports, such as canvases or panels. The simple notion of measuring one side with the other, comparing their images and compositions (among other aspects) produced a kind of syntax that could stand on its own. Having acclimatized myself to seeing and thinking this way, I noticed one day that the subway platform ad posters were almost invariably displayed in cases that held two images of the same size together, so I started taking Polaroids of them in late 1987.
I used a Polaroid Spectra camera with a built-in flash. The flash is really important in this work, first for lighting sometimes darkly lit ads but more importantly, for the image the flash makes in the photos. The flash image unites the two ad images in situ. thus dispelling the idea that I simply juxtaposed two images together in the studio. In most of the photos the images bleed off the edges. This cropping limit was imposed by the short distance I usually had to stand back to get the two ad images in the frame of the camera. Another step back was death trains and / or tracks.
Because of their scale and proximity to the viewers, the ads were affecting people subliminally. People pass by in a rush or stroll, stand or sit waiting. Maybe some of those people occasionally focus on the details of the ads. A train pulls up, people get out and move while other schools of people wait to swim into the cars. Because of this I would venture to say the majority “feel” the ads more than they see them. This scale of image to the body/eye is related to various art ideas. One is the notion that the Abstract Expressionists developed around the “environmental” scale they worked in, with the object of encompassing the viewer’s body completely by the painting. Then there’s Jim Rosenquist, who described using some images that were so big, that initially, the viewer doesn’t see what they are, in other words… images that were felt before they were seen.
There was a point in time in 1988 when I think I knew almost every advertisement that appeared in subways in New York. It was fascinating, the combination and repetition of images. One could see a certain ad coupled with different partner ads throughout the city. All the juxtapositions, I thought it was safe to assume, were put up randomly by the workers charged with that task. The whole operation then, while corresponding to processes that artists would follow in making a work was carried out anonymously and autonomously, so this was perhaps a real demonstration of the collective unconscious. In the beginning is the consumer, the origin of desire, then there are the business entities involved in the production of the wares designed to fulfill that desire, then the ad agencies charged with the tasks of coming up with campaigns for those products, the “creatives” involved with the actual details of the art and then the format of the ad stands on the platform which funnels it all back to the consumer.
In those years of walks through the subway stations, I thought of the ad images as a collective oracle, a kind of sociological tarot deck that had been drawn from society’s desires. The posters fit all descriptions: ads for things like cigarettes, beer, hard liquor and over the counter drugs, cultural events including musicals, concerts, sports events, ads for movies, travel deals, museums and radio stations, public service ads dealing with health or work related issues, ads for beauty treatments, and on and on. Like a Tarot deck, the ad images could be said to be symbols of all the various impulses we have: survival, food, sex, death, love, power, beauty, money, etc. They had then been drawn, shuffled and laid out in a precise format with neutrality to any meaning that might be involved their combination. Here was where the artist came in…seeing it and reflecting it back.
east west, 1987- 89 New York Polaroid photograph 4” x 4” coll. artist
working, 1987- 89 New York Polaroid photograph 4” x 4” coll. artist
minds her own, 1987- 89 New York Polaroid photograph 4” x 4” coll. artist
light alliance, 1987- 89 New York Polaroid photograph 4” x 4” coll. artist
doa heart, 1987- 89 New York Polaroid photograph 4” x 4” coll. artist
money derby, 1987- 89 New York Polaroid photograph 4” x 4” coll. artist
prison the American way, 1987- 89 New York Polaroid photograph 4” x 4” coll. artist
kiss apple, 1987- 89 New York Polaroid photograph 4” x 4” coll. artist
juice, 1987- 89 New York Polaroid photograph 4” x 4” coll. artist
roll, 1987- 89 New York Polaroid photograph 4” x 4” coll. artist
image gina, 1987- 89 New York Polaroid photograph 4” x 4” coll. artist
test baby, 1987- 89 New York Polaroid photograph 4” x 4” coll. artist
savior of the species, 1987- 89 New York Polaroid photograph 4” x 4” coll. artist
bring, 1987- 89 New York Polaroid photograph 4” x 4” coll. artist
girleye donkeye 1987- 89 New York Polaroid photograph 4” x 4” coll. artist
wrinkle, 1987- 89 New York Polaroid photograph 4” x 4” coll. artist
Don Q, Don Q, 1987- 89 New York Polaroid photograph 4” x 4” coll. artist
kafka’s cats, 1987- 89 New York Polaroid photograph 4” x 4” coll. artist
cats, 1987- 89 New York Polaroid photograph 4” x 4” coll. artist
b & w, 1987- 89 New York Polaroid photograph 4” x 4” coll. artist
our mis, 1987-89 new york Polaroid photograph 4” x 4” coll. artist
odd, 1987-89 new york Polaroid photograph 4” x 4” coll. artist
hi lo, 1987-89 new york Polaroid photograph 4” x 4” coll. artist
dunk, 1987-89 new york Polaroid photograph 4” x 4” coll. artist
roma’s ribs, 1987-89 new york Polaroid photograph 4” x 4” coll. artist
the people, 1987-89 new york Polaroid photograph 4” x 4” coll. artist
people 2, 1987-89 new york Polaroid photograph 4” x 4” coll. artist
target, 1987-89 new york Polaroid photograph 4” x 4” coll. artist
spring break, 1987-89 new york Polaroid photograph 4” x 4” coll. artist
end ?, 1987-89 new york Polaroid photograph 4” x 4” coll. artist
scale vs size, 1987-89 new york Polaroid photograph 4” x 4” coll. artist
m cats, 1987-89 new york Polaroid photograph 4” x 4” coll. artist
life when you do, 1987-89 new york Polaroid photograph 4” x 4” coll. artist
castles, 1987-89 new york Polaroid photograph 4” x 4” coll. artist
juggler, 1987-89 new york Polaroid photograph 4” x 4” coll. artist
a difference, 1987-89 new york Polaroid photograph 4” x 4” coll. artist
which / whom, 1987-89 new york Polaroid photograph 4” x 4” coll. artist
piles, 1987-89 new york Polaroid photograph 4” x 4” coll. artist
american dream, 1987-89 new york Polaroid photograph 4” x 4” coll. artist
time and again, 1987-89 new york Polaroid photograph 4” x 4” coll. artist
