Visual Encounter: Maggie Knaus' Road Trip Polaroids @ Exposure Gallery

Tuesday, October 11, 2011

Maggie Knaus' Road Trip Polaroids @ Exposure Gallery

Exhibition view "Keep the Car Running"

The American landscape is shaped by highways and the buildings along them: motels, churches, roadside bars, monuments, strip malls, and suspension bridges. I remember the amazing Lee Friedlander photographic series "America by Car" (shown last fall at the Whitney Museum of American Art). On his road trips, he photographed countless icons of American culture; and it seems like that's the only adequate way to capture the spirit of the American landscape: by car.

Exhibition view "Keep the Car Running"

And that's exactly what Ottawa photographer Maggie Knaus does in her current show "Keep the Car Running: Road Trip Polaroids" at Exposure Gallery. Her large-scale prints were created from various trips across the United States over the last couple of decades and show places and buildings that seem to belong to a long-gone era. This body of work has a personal story, like she says in her artist statement:

Exhibition view "Keep the Car Running"

"Road trips evoke wonderful memories from my childhood: The Volkswagon Squareback station wagon we fondly dubbed Black Mac; breakfasts of hard-boiled eggs and doughnuts; hot, sticky vinyl seats that left imprints on little thighs; fighting for space with my brother and sister; finding relief from them on a sleeping bag in the back hatch; and peering out the window in search of road signs promising ice cream. There were no DVDs or video games to distract us, just hours of playing 20 questions and the view of the passing scenery and the backs of my parents' heads. I remember the image of my father's expansive 1970s moustache in the rearview mirror and the sound of my mother's knitting needles rhythmically clicking back and forth. We all marveled at the mirages of waves rippling from the heat on the roads and how the light at the end of the day made the world outside look golden. At the end of the day, we'd explode from the car with relief."

Exhibition view "Keep the Car Running"

And as a grown-up, she still loves being out on the road. During her travels, she has discovered buildings and reminders of another era well before her childhood: ancient bumper cars, cinemas, Ferris wheels, old-fashioned gas stations and fast-food restaurants.

Whereas Lee Friedlander seems to ingeniously comment on the weird world outside his rental car (and the car itself is seen in his photos, like the steering wheel, the windows and in particular the side and rearview mirrors that work like mise-en- abyme picture frames), Knaus first just seems to document it. The surprising effect then comes from the unique technique she uses and that gives them a look of antique postcards: Her slides are projected onto Polaroid film. After that, she peels the film apart, that's why her pictures gain such an antique look. Then the Polaroid image is transferred onto watercolor paper and hand-colored with pastels and pencils. What a tremendous work! The last step for the works is to be scanned, enlarged and turned into Giglee prints. You see, she uses techniques and materials that soon will become extinct. E.g. the Polaroid film she was working with is not manufactured any more. So, take you chance to enjoy Knaus's artworks as long as you can - not only the objects she photographed (I love the café in shape of a coffee pot!) will disappear soon...