Out Front : A Photographer Finds Beauty in Everyday lawn Ornaments, and in the Creative Spirit That Displays Them
Some years ago I took a trip across New York State that brought me to Richfield Springs, a depressed little town. I came to one of those lawn ornament places, a roadside dealer that makes and sells them, and I wandered around to the back where the statues were sitting. They’re all concrete and are cast by workers, who set them out to cure for several days. They were all lined up on pallets, and the image of all those figures just hit me. The project I’m doing, taking photos of statuary, figurines and lawn sculpture, somehow clicked at that moment.
When you see two dozen frogs and 25 madonnas jumbled together, at first glance it looks arbitrary, but then you realize that someone ordered them. There is real beauty in not only the patterns but in these odd combinations of icons and images from different cultures and walks of life, everything from highbrow to strictly religious figures, with the kitschy and cartoony stuff all mixed in. And the way the light hits the unpainted statues is beautiful. I’ve been back to that place a number of times, but from that point on, I was interested in these things along the road and in front of people’s houses.
Your average lawn ornament is not that interesting unless it’s with other statues in an unusual arrangement or in a setting that makes you look or think twice about what you’re seeing. I tend to be drawn to those arrangements, or a single lawn ornament in a surreal landscape that makes you wonder about the sky and the earth. As far as the people who set them up, I’ve met a number of them and they’re--how shall I put this?--definitely joyous in what they do.
Some people actually make these objects by hand and cross over into the category of “outsider” artists. In one image I made in Long Island, there is a bathtub and inside it sits a dummy with a mask on. It’s almost like a set for a play, but it’s outside and alongside the road. And you’re just not sure what the intention is. The owner of the house said he changes the display now and then. It was obviously very personal, and I think that it was just his way of being neighborly and sharing something of himself with the rest of the world.
What I see is that there’s a creative part in people that wants to express itself publicly. In my work, my interest has been to seek out the more intriguing and perhaps bizarre arrangements that can reveal a whole visual dialogue filled with irony, puns, mystery and humor.
