Dirty sidewalks, overgrown backyards, unpeopled swimming pools, boundless rooftops, picket fences — the markers of suburbia have been endlessly ransacked and romanticized by city people, providing an endless source of inspiration for sometimes very good art. Think Nan Goldin’s Family on the Lawn One Sunday in Westchester, N.Y., or creepy cult sci-fi Donnie Darko. But these places are arguably most magical when illustrated by people who choose — for reasons either artistic or economical — to immerse themselves in the towns the rest of us often forget. Petra Collins, Juergen Teller, Thomas Struth, Ed Templeton, and Harry Gruyaert are just a few artists mining these urban zones for social and cultural treasures. All are included in a massive group exhibition opening in Paris today, ‘Cause the Grass Don’t Grown and the Sky Ain’t Blue, which finds beauty in the ignoble space by reaffirming its validity as a material.
The show also addresses the balance between urban plight, government initiatives such as residency programs, and the influx of young artists into urban wastelands. “The prevailing atmosphere on the outskirts of our cities intrigues, becoming a subject of conversation and a source of inspiration,” say curators Clémence Duchon and Flavie Loizon. “The inner city has rarely caused such feelings of fear, but paradoxically it has never been the subject of so many fantasies. Although the suburb is a literal mine of aesthetic references, dubbed as such by the big shots of mainstream culture, these working class districts are all too often abandoned. This exhibition is the chance to give people who have first hand knowledge of the suburbs a chance to speak and to show the suburbs in a different light; to present the vision of people who have managed to tame these unknown territories.”
From the buildings of a dreary outer China to the bed of William Eggleston, each artist presents an imaginary yet very real world that argues for beauty in all things.
“‘Cause the Grass Don’t Grow and the Sky Ain’t Blue” is on view at Praz-Delavallade in Paris from July 7 through September 24, 2016.
Credits
Text Hannah Ongley
Images courtesy of Praz-Delavallade Gallery