Because suburbia occupies a dominant presence in so many lives—a place of not only residence but also of work, commerce, worship, education, and leisure—it has become a focal point for competing interests and viewpoints. The suburbs have always been a fertile space for imagining both the best and the worst of modern social life. On the one hand, the suburbs are portrayed as a middle-class domestic utopia and on the other as a dystopic world of homogeneity and conformity. Both of these stereotypes belie a more realistic understanding of contemporary suburbia and its dynamic transformations, and how these representations and realities shape our society, influence our culture, and impact our lives.
The intention of Worlds Away: New Suburban Landscapes is to demonstrate how the American suburb has played a catalytic role in the creation of new art. Challenging preconceived ideas and expectations about suburbia (either pro or con), the exhibition hopes to impart a better understanding of how those ideas were formed and how they are challenged by contemporary realities. The exhibition features artwork by Gregory Crewdson, Dan Graham, Catherine Opie, and Edward Ruscha, among others, and architectural projects by firms such as Fashion.Architecture.Taste, The Center for Land Use Interpretation, MVRDV, and Estudio Teddy Cruz.
Worlds Away will be accompanied by a 320-page, fully illustrated catalogue featuring essays and interviews which provide a revisionist and even contrarian take on the conventional wisdom surrounding American suburban life.
Curator: Andrew Blauvelt, Design Director and Curator, with Tracy Myers, Curator, Heinz Architectural Center
Tour Dates
- Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania | October 4, 2008 – January 18, 2009
- Yale School of Architecture, New Haven, Connecticut | March 2, 2009 – May 10, 2009
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