On the Web: Mark Luthringer: Ridgemont Typologies
I came across Mark Luthringer’s project Ridgemont Typologies several weeks ago and put a note out to Mark hoping he’d allow me to post a few images along with a link back to his site. Mark obliged, but the post never saw daylight.
Fast forward to today. While running through some email from that time period I came across Mark’s response and wanted to post an excerpt from his artist statement (as opposed to trying to embellish upon or pull from it) and provide a link to his work:
The typological array’s inherent ability to depict prevalence and repetition make it the perfect technique for examining the excess, redundancy, and meaningless freedom of our current age of consumption. Part of my intent with this work is to answer the question implied by the title of Robert Adams’s book What We Bought: If there is some kind of big sellout occuring, what are we getting in the deal?
The typological form achieves an uncanny synergy and resonance with this subject matter because it mimics the mental images I suspect many of us form as a way of ordering the chaos of abundance that surrounds us. We can’t help but form in our heads lists, groups and categories based on product, brand, price point, style, market segment, country of origin, etc.
To see one of these turned into a group of images lined up together can be unnerving, though. In print, they confront us in a way never possible when they’re just in our heads. We are presented with order, and while it is often an absurd, seemingly pointless order, it is one that we recognize immediately.
I’m glad I came across that email. View the work: Mark Luthringer - Ridgemont Typologies
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