Due to health reasons I missed the original Ed Ruscha Challenge task that was set at the beginning of the module, however I endeavoured to go back and do something similar. The challenge was to undertake a project in the vein of Edward Ruscha's "Twentysix Gasoline Stations" (Ruscha, 1963).
‘I realized that for the first time this book had an inexplicable thing I was looking for, and that was a kind of a “Huh?” That‘s what I’ve always worked around. All it is is a device to disarm somebody with my particular message.' - Ruscha (Willoughby, 1973)
The book is a classic, at least I must imagine so given that it has come up constantly throughout my photographic education (Now entering its seventh year), and it seems that is was as much a turning point for art photography as it was for Ruscha as it demonstrated that really anything could be an art book with the right though put into it, even something so banal as gasoline stations. in a summary on the Tate website Maria White states that "Ruscha’s work has been copied, mimicked, appropriated and played upon by other artist book producers" since as early as 1969 (White, 2013).
For my own project, I choose to photograph something as equally as banal. Men's urinals in the Rhondda valley. Actually someone local to the Rhonda (My husband for instance) might argue there is a more historical value in my project given that these small buildings have a direct relationship with the Rhondda Valleys mining history. These small buildings can be found across the valleys on the old roads that were walked by hundreds of men between their homes and the mines. Each urinal follows the same basic construction, though with minor alterations based on its location. They are made quite simply of two walls, one that houses the actual urinal, and another that surrounds it for privacy. Given the topology of the valleys, some of these have much high walls, or are surrounded by greenery for added privacy. I find it raises questions, however, into what level of privacy men feel they need, when they are quite happy not to have a roof, nor doors on these buildings, and even relieve themselves in-front of one another, yet the wall must still be present and must seem to give adequate security and privacy. As a man myself, I cant even begin to say where the line is drawn and I feel that this project has the potential to turn into something much larger of its own, I may even carry this on separate to my degree.
Ruscha, E. (1963). Twentysix gasoline stations. [Los Angeles]: Ruscha.
Willoughby Sharp, ‘“… a kind of a Huh?”, An Interview with Edward Ruscha’, Avalanche, no.7, Winter/ Spring 1973, p.30.
White, M. (2013). Edward Ruscha 'Twentysix Gasoline Stations' 1963 | Tate. [online] Tate. Available at: https://www.tate.org.uk/about-us/projects/transforming-artist-books/summaries/edward-ruscha-twentysix-gasoline-stations-1963 [Accessed 11 Nov. 2019].
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