Laura Russell • Portland, OR |
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| Hit the Road! | Bless This House | Good Will & Salvation | |
Laura Russell Highway 99 runs all the way from Canada to Mexico. In its heyday, Highway 99 was the main corridor through Washington, Oregon and California. Replaced by Interstate 5 in the mid-1960’s, Highway 99 still beckons with neon signs, shaped buildings, gentle giants and other roadside attractions that take us back to simpler times and happy road trips. Hit the Road! is volume one in a series featuring each of the three states. The artist spent close to three years traveling Highway 99 to photograph and catalog Washington’s roadside attractions. Outside of Seattle and Tacoma, Washington has only a handful of remaining art•ifacts, but the ones that still stand are worth preserving. The 19 attractions featured in Hit the Road! are displayed in geographically correct order from North to South. Single layer horizontal flag book with cloth bound cover and ribbon tie to display open. Archival digital printing on Red River Polar Matte paper. 9” x 5.75” x 1” Includes an insert card with a map listing each attraction. Original color photographs by the artist. Signed and numbered. Enclosed in a chipboard wrapper. Edition of 25. 2008. To purchase this work please contact Laura at 23 Sandy Gallery. |
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Laura Russell In the summer of 2006, nearly 250 families received notice that their three adjoining mobile home parks in Beaverton, Oregon would be closed and demolished to make way for redevelopment. Bless This House is a collection photographs that document a community on the brink of extinction. The front side of the large accordion “map” shows photographs of the park and it's families in the months before demolition. The backside of the accordion shows a progression from left to right from a dreary winter of empty trailers, to demolition and finally to a land laid bare by bulldozers. Sadly, the bulldozers pulled out and the land was cleared in the summer of 2008. Then came the market crash in September 2008. The promise of affordable housing replaced by the failed promises of a strip mall. Accordion fold text block with case-style hard cover. Archival digital printing on Red River Polar Matte paper. 6.25 x 16.25 x .5 inches extending out to 55 inches. 55 original color photographs plus a poem written by the artist. Edition of 25. 2010. To purchase this work please contact Laura at 23 Sandy Gallery. |
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Laura Russell Good Will & Salvation is a long term and on-going photography project that is really a tribute to my Mother, an avid thrift store shopper. Whenever we visit, we spend our days trolling every Goodwill and Salvation Army stores in whichever town we happen to be in. My mother shops to her hearts desire and I spend the day taking photographs to document the quirky castoffs of our commercial consumer culture. This book showcases the best of those photographs. What is most fun and satisfying for me is the pairing of images. The naked GI Joe dolls sit next to a rack of plaid polyester men’s pants. The shelf full of porcelain brides sit next to the wall of discarded bridal gowns. All are joined together by a long accordion spine strip that shows miles and miles of clothing racks, garments organized by color, just as you’d find in any quality Goodwill store. Digital archival printing on two-sided paper. Bound using Hedi Kyle’s woven and interlocking accordion structure. Moab Entrada paper. Features 36 pages of photographs plus 16 more photographs of clothing racks on the spine piece. 5 x 5 x 1.5 inches closed; 5 x 40 inches open. Presented in a custom slipcase. Edition of 25. 2011. To purchase this work please contact Laura at 23 Sandy Gallery. |
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© All images and text copyright the artist. All rights reserved. |
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