Worlds Away: New Suburban Landscapes

by Andrew Blauvelt (Editor), John Archer (Contributor), David Brooks (Contributor)

The suburbs have always been a fertile space for imagining both the best and the worst of modern social life. Portrayed alternately as a middle-class domestic utopia and a dystopic world of homogeneity and conformity--with manicured suburban lawns and the inchoate darkness that lurks just beneath the surface--these stereotypes belie a more realistic understanding of contemporary suburbia and its dynamic transformations. Organized by the Walker Art Center in association with the Heinz Architectural Center at Carnegie Museum of Art, Worlds New Suburban Landscapes is the first major museum exhibition to examine both the art and architecture of the contemporary American suburb. Featuring paintings, photographs, prints, architectural models, sculptures and video from more than 30 artists and architects, including Christopher Ballantyne, Center for Land Use Interpretation, Gregory Crewdson, Estudio Teddy Cruz, Dan Graham and Larry Sultan, Worlds Away demonstrates the catalytic role of the American suburb in the creation of new art and prospective architecture. Conceived as a revisionist and even contrarian take on the conventional wisdom surrounding suburban life, the catalogue features new essays and seminal writings by John Archer, Robert Beuka, Robert Breugmann, David Brooks, Beatriz Colomina, Malcolm Gladwell and others, as well as a lexicon of suburban neologisms.

Genres: Architecture, Design, Urban Studies, Photography

336 pages, Paperback

First published February 16, 2008

Reviews

[Hamilcar]

I found this at City Lights and stopped reading my other books to read the essays in it. While it has its less interesting lows, as does any collection of essays, the book provides a vast and detailed view of suburban development. Highlights include John Archer's essay which introduced me to Claritas and development marketing while also touching on concepts of defining identity of self through objects, the excerpt from a book by David Brooks, and Robert Bruegmann's essay which defends sprawl and seeks to qualify arguments against it. There are others that struck me as great at the time, but that I can't remember right now. The art from the Worlds Away exhibition at the Walker Center presented here is also worth a look. This book stands out for me because it provides views on issues of urbanism and suburbanism predominately from the perspective of artists and others who are not necessarily among the usual characters to approach this issue (i.e. architects and planners).

[Mary]

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[Alyssa · Rating 5 out of 5]

A beautiful multi media look at Suburban America!