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Modification Notice: The seller last modified this listing Wed, 01/13/10 @ 05:19:46 PM EST.
Description
Chromogenic print, signed, numbered "1/10" on the reverse.
Estimate
500 - 1000
Provenance
Directly from artist.
Measurements
24 x 30"
Condition
Artwork is in excellent condition.
Jack Kerouac’s first novel, set in a dying Massachusetts mill town during the mid 20th century,
tells the story of the Martin family. They are deeply rooted in their community, but eventually
forced to relocate to New York City when their father loses his business and can’t nd work. I
chose to title this photography project after the classic literary piece The Town and the City
out of nostalgia for a time when New England mill towns thrived, downtown was the center
of civic activity, and the word "home" was not just a term used by developers to sell more
houses.
The book describes a place and time when citizens walking along Main Street knew each
other by name and stopped on the sidewalk to exchange greetings. A time when steam
poured from the stacks of immense red brick textile mills, and people gathered in co ee
shops to sit and talk while enjoying their drinks. Today, half of the storefronts on Main Street
are empty while the parking lots of the big box stores on the outskirts of town are full. Most
of the mills are either vacant or being converted into condos, and co ee is almost always
served in a to go cup. In the past, a home was a long term undertaking that families took
pride in creating, and now the average life of a mortgage loan is down to only seven years.
The housing market has become solely a pro t driven business where houses are built quickly
and thoughtlessly, then bought and sold in similar fashion. In addition, we have spread this
terribly homogenized system of subdivisions, strip malls, and pedestrian unfriendly collector
roads all over our once open countryside in an awful sprawling mess. During this 50 year
frenzy we have failed to create anything that resembles a traditional town like Kerouac
eloquently describes, and also ignored our existing ones, letting some decay beyond the
point of salvation.
I have photographed several of the places Kerouac describes in his book, including the New
York apartment where it was written. I have explored a variety of local neighborhoods, interiors,
commercial sectors, and industrial sites. Seen individually these photographs can seem
to be about architecture, construction, urban decay, suburban sprawl, or the American
Dream. But the series as a whole tells a more elaborate story about an historic region inhabited
by a modern society at risk of losing sight of the ideals upon which their infrastructure
was built.
Mark Marchesi was born in 1977 and raised in a suburb of New York City. In 1999 he earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts
degree in photography from Maine College of Art in Portland, Maine. Mark’s personal photographic projects have
been featured in several group exhibitions across the USA, most notably Unframed First Look at Sean Kelley
Gallery in 2005, and Hey, Hot Shot! Spring 2007 Winners Showcase at Jen Bekman Gallery. His first solo exhibition
was held in the spring of 2008 at Nelson Hancock Gallery in Brooklyn, and showcased prints from the
series The Town and the City. Recently, Mark received a Maine Arts Commission Grant to support his newest
body of work, and was chosen as one of twelve photographers to be included in the locally published book
Portland Through the Lens. Currently he lives and works in South Portland, Maine.
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