Klett and Wolfe - Subverting Nostalgia and Kitsch

Mark Klett and Byron Wolfe, 2008. Reconstructing the view from the El Tovar to Yavapai Point using nineteen postcards.

Still thinking about last week’s conversations at the inaugural window opening, I’m prompted to post a few excerpts from the introductory essay written for the monograph that catalogues Klett and Wolfe’s project, Reconstructing the View.  In the essay, exhibition curator Rebecca Senf thoughtfully picks apart both the process and content of the work (and the direct relationship between the two) and also incorporates comments from the artists themselves.

There can be a sort of immediate response to work that repurposes the types of images that are used within the Klett and Wolfe montage currently on display at window (click HERE to view), especially for those unfamiliar with the pair’s prior and/or related work.  Indeed, the first associations that come forth might lead one to quickly assume the purpose of the image (and of its construction) is simply to playfully juxtapose colorful “retro” style images to re-create a beautiful landscape.  These aesthetic qualities surely play a role in the construction of meaning, but only when the process of questioning begins can the viewer see underneath this surface and begin to engage with a secondary set of concerns.

Below I’ve included a few excerpts from Senf’s essay that I think may help illuminate the work more broadly, and perhaps provide a richer understanding of the image currently on view at window.

Excerpts from Reconstructing the View

“A key component of Klett and Wolfe’s rephotographic framework is its subversive intent:  rather than reflecting a nostalgic interest, the historic images allowed the artists to question assumptions about the past, and, in so doing, to challenge generally held perceptions about the present and the future.” (Senf 18)

“For Klett and Wolfe, there is an important connection between this subversive intent and the fun they have in their working process.  Klett has described the link:  “I want to point out that part of this fun is in being subversive, I think we view our practice as the opposite of retro – that is, we’re not interested in historic images for nostalgic reasons, but because we view our practice as calling into question assumptions and established views about he past.  Ultimately this practice can cause one to question views of past, present, and future.  It’s a very activist result from a seemingly passive methodology.  This is important because my experience has been that repeat photography is associated with interest in the past or physical change, but we’ve become much less interested in the subject of physical change than in affecting how we perceive the subject.  The work is an exercise in visualization and examining expectations, and when it challenges what we expect to to see, we get excited.”  (Senf 40).

“The ‘El Tovar and Yavapai Point Postcard Mashup,’ (2008), features a range of postcards, made at different times and printed in various media, that are brought together and enlarged to call attention to their method of reproduction.  The work combines nineteen postcards, or portions thereof, to create a completely new collage of the view stretching from El Tovar Hotel to Yavapai Point, on the canyon’s South Rim…In most cases, the photographers decided to print works that incorporate postcards at roughly their original size, to preserve the feeling of the postcard as a familiar physical object…With the El Tovar and Yavapai Point postcard mashup, however, a large scale was imperative, for the work is about the postcard’s visual syntax, its language of representation.  Wolfe pointed out the kitschy draw of the exaggerated, amplified colors typical of postcards created in the first half of the twentieth century.  (He clarified that he does not use the term “kitschy” to denigrate the postcards but rather to describe their lasting and powerful appeal as collectible objects).  Enlarging the final work renders visible the various dot patterns of the original postcards’ reproductive processes, and the extreme palettes of maroon, bright orange, icy blue, and lemon yellow compete for dominance.”  (Senf 29, 30).