Ephemera (artwork 2008)

Collage on board and canvas 61x61 cm. Finally I got around to making a collage after almost a year of nothing but photography as a creative outlet. This one consists mostly of real ephemera found in an abandoned house in Kansas. Cheques from the early 19th Century (a token for the oh so ephemeral monetary values and the things bought with them for work and survival in the material world), and a typed story called 'My Wife' from 1913 are main ingredients in this attempt to point at the contrast between the hopes, dreams and certain people's creative and visionary ambitions, and the real toil and wear of life. The latter certainly comes forth very strongly in the history of the region - Kansas being part of the West that was, of course, the land of new promises and opportunities, inundated with settlers from all over the world.

There is an obvious contrast also between the ephemeral qualities of life and the 'tapestry of life' symbolised by old wallpaper, and the way people are remembered as names carved in the long lasting tombstones (in this case German settlers).

The story 'My Wife' is the red thread running through the piece, however it is presented piece meal and unfinished to point at the way many stories remain in people's memories. The photo in the middle of the very unephemeral gravestones, the fake pointsillas and the American flag in the background is my own. I have uploaded this as high resolution as many of the details are interesting (but remember this is copyrighted).

Note for instance (but unfortunately too small to read here) the obituary of 1940 which talks of people noted for being 'a friend of Sitting Bull' or 'the first person to be inoculated with rabies vaccine', 'the one who invented the phone booth', 'the first vaudeville actor to eat a banana under water', or advertisements regarding shows with Al Jolson and Ethel Barrymore and the very first show on ice. All this also reflects feelings I went through while residing in the area during the unusually cold and bleak winter of 2008.