Memoria Suburbiae is one of two screenprints published by the artist at Pyramid. The two prints bookend MacDonald's acclaimed 2003 exhibition, Home, encompassing themes of utopian idealization and the limitations society imposes via racism to help create “suburbia.”
Fanchon Silberstein, author of Art inSight: Understanding Art and Why It Matters gives insight to the work:
After World War II, American developers started building the types of houses that appear in MacDonald’s silkscreens. New forms of mass production had lowered costs, and such houses appealed to Americans who were grateful to afford new homes.
In MacDonald’s “Urban Apotheosis," the houses are recognizable but odd. They're tinged with an unlikely light, the doors have no handles, and the windows are mostly blank. We see no people. An apotheosis is the highest point in the development of an idea and in the second half of the twentieth century, many Americans’ high ideas of the comforts of home rested in houses like the one he shows us in “Memoria Suburbiae,” These houses were in newly created communities that represented stability after the turmoil of World War II.
But in MacDonald’s landscape there are undertones of intolerance, fear, racism and ignorance. Many families moved into suburban communities not only to find order and predictability but also to flee the growing diversity of their neighborhoods. The ghostly pallor surrounding the houses seems a comment on the deadening sameness of these isolated populations. A door without a handle keeps people in or out and makes us wonder who can come and go. Are people imprisoned in these isolated communities? MacDonald’s picture doesn’t overtly ask these questions, and the artist does not preach. He offers images of home, and we bring the rest.
Kevin MacDonald made “Suburban Apotheosis” at least one year before the terrorist attacks of 2001 and “Memoria Suburbiae” four years later. At any time, we may long for the safety of known communities, but the same longings raise questions about the consequences of fear and the dangers of isolation. This of course does not mean that every person living in these houses was fearful or wished to be isolated. Both MacDonald himself and Helen Frederick lived in similar houses in Silver Spring. For them and for others, the light surrounding this house may carry a sense of hope. Reading art is never easy, and we must always consider the contexts in which artists work and the perceptions we bring.
Prints of this work are also found in collections at the DC Art Bank and Maryland State Arts Council Works on Paper Collection.
Printer: Pepe Coronado
Learn more about the artist:
kevinmacdonaldart.com
