Images from the American West
I grew up in the American West. Mostly in Los Angeles, which sometimes puts a glossy veneer on the American Dream. On family vacations, we would get in the car, or the camper on my Grandpa’s truck, and drive to the wilder places. Long highways leading to small towns, and vast vistas. Places where churches and strip clubs exist on the same block, where one can buy homemade ice cream, assault weapons, knitting supplies or taxidermy all at the local drugstore. Or where, looking the other direction, the untamed view takes ones breath away. Many of the places I have photographed are changing rapidly, making way for high rises, strip malls, and box stores.
There is something quintessentially American about the big highways and lonesome winds, the strange glimpses of the selling of dreams, of momentary pleasures and necessities, the fortune tellers and coffee shops, the sacred next to the profane. America is struggling at the moment, about which way to go, which side to choose, which road to follow. The divides of race, gender, class, and tribe are ever more clearly drawn. With images of my hometown, and the roads leading out from it to the horizon, I am attempting to navigate the wilderness.
This was a hell of a few years. The viruses, the shootings, the fires, the politics, the confusion, the isolation, and everything else we do have all felt so difficult. So many things have felt outside of our control. And yet there were moments of such intense beauty, connection, and love.
Looking around her home, Martin collects and examines the evidence of the insanity, rituals, and fecundity of our daily lives - a skull her daughter found in the dirt, her wilting sixtieth birthday flowers, the insects that invade, the stuff we hoped would make us feel safe, the decaying fruit that we forgot to eat, the birds that few into the walls of glass, the talismans of hope for the future. Set against the sometimes chaotic outside world, the mundane and magical objects we accumulate bring comfort in these wild times.
Candles, Crystals, Iron Bear and Monkey Coin Holders, Snow Globe, Matches, Tarot Cards, Cups, Wand, Coins, Sword Letter Opener
Toilet Paper, Sanitizer, Mask, Gloves, Skull, Candles, Matches
Tequila Bottles, Lemons, Limes, Ladybugs, Jigger, Silver Bowl
Cardboard boxes, Packaging, Box Cutter, Alcohol Wipes, Rubber Gloves, Energy Drink, Felt Tip Pen
Scrub Brush, Gloves, Wipes, Spray, Paper, Towels, Garbage Bags, Sponge, Hand Sanitizer
Oranges, Eggs, Ceramic Bowl, Garlic, Can of Beans, Candle, Water, Onion, Can of Olives, Cookies, Lemon, Apple, Nuts
Garbage Can, Toilet Paper Roll, Feminine Hygiene Products, Plastic Wrappings, Q-Tips
Birds’ Nests (Twigs, Grass, Straw Wrapper), Ostrich Egg, Two-Headed Duckling
Ceramic Vase, Flowers, Leaves
Empty Tequila Bottles, Empty Citron Bottles, Skull Bottle
Black Cat, Dead Bird, Feathers, Bobcat Skull
Watermelon, Mango, Strawberries, Letter Opener, Egg, Porcelain Cups, Lipstick, Tissues, Marker
Pears, Tomatoes, Cake Stand
Cat, Globe, Finch, Ceramic Plate
Covid Test Packaging, Test Tubes, Instructions, Swabs, Felt Tip Marker, Vitamins
Glass Bottles, Corks, Labels
Sunflower Petals, Black Velvet
In this series, Martin examines the state between the civilized and wild. She captures detailed yet ambiguous moments that are once intimate and surreal. The series features young women with rumpled hair and tattoos juxtaposed with those of a dead rabbit, a fly in a flower and a floating jellyfish, evoking a sense of fragility, of life delicately balanced. These images convey a powerful yet vunerable energy, suggesting that the girls possess a magic of their own, a kind of magical capability that is both captivating and unsettling. They evoke a sense of being on the verge, of being on the brink of something momentous and mysterious. The work challenges conventional notions of beauty and femininity offering an alternative view that is both raw and lyrical. Through the linking of these seemingly discordant images, Erica Kelly Martin extends an invitation to the viewer to consider the world in a new and unexpected way.