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| Ed Ruscha, 'Twentysix Gasoline Stations', cover, 1963. Print screen. |
Ed Ruscha (b.1937) is an American artist who is working with subject matters such as the banality of everyday life. Born in Nebraska and raised in Oklahoma City, throughout his work, Ruscha ''... consistently combines the cityscape of his adopted hometown with vernacular language to communicate a particular urban experience.''
In 1963, Ruscha published his 1st photographic book -which is considered as the 1st artist's book ever been made, a 48-page publication called 'Twenty six Gasoline Stations'. Through out the book, Ruscha documents various of his trips along Rout66, between Los Angeles and his hometown, OKLAHOMA City. In the book 'Ed Rouscha and Photography' it is written that by ''... using his Yashica camera, he took the pictures from across the street, mostly during the day, with the light either behind him or to the side, which emphasized the stations' facades''.
In an interview to Paul Karlstrom between 1980-81, Ruscha said that the title for the book came long before he started taking the pictures. Having said that, it is very much important to consider at this point the fact that the artist belongs to a generation that grew up in an era where the automobile was the symbolism of freedom, and therefore, roads that connected small places with bigger ones seemed to be the medium for 'individual salvation'. ''Ruscha, however, was not interested in cars themeselves as much as in the ride...'' In his essay 'Words as landscapes', Kerry Brougher notes:
''Back in 1956, in the days when those filling stations still pumped ethyl, two 18-years old 'Okies' were making their way across country in a black 1950 Ford. Stopping at nearly every filling station on Route 66 to put another quart of oil in the car, Manson Williams, who would go on to write the hit song 'Calssical Gas', and Ed Rouscha were moving to Los Angeles, aiming straight toward the sunset... the warm weather, beaches, girls and art school =and away from the small-town, repressive environment of Oklahoma City.''
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| Ed Ruscha, 'Twentysix Gasoline Stations', spread, 1963. Print screen. |
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| Ed Ruscha, 'Twentysix Gasoline Stations', spread, 1963. Print screen. |
So, in that sense, when Ruscha made this book through which he showcases (only) photographs he took of Gasoline Stations during his trips on Route 66, he attempts to compose and/or to archive an existential journey through which he broke with his Catholic past and begun his life to become who he is now. He attempts to compose an existential journey -by archiving landmarks of such journeys- for all of us who have been through such itineraries. Gasoline stations are crucial points in a road trip, since without them such journeys would not have been possible. By using his camera more like a capturing device rather than an expressive tool, and by documenting Gas Stations, he attempts to document all these things and meanings that they (Gas Stations) encapsulate. By creating a sequence composed by fragments he observes during his journey, through his right window, he is creating a map; a very subversive one.
In conclusion, as Brougher notes: ''In one of his early paintings, 'U.S. 66 (1960)... still has its feet.. in Abstract Expressionism; but the hovering 'US 66' which is superimposed over the sky... with its missing periods, can be read not only as 'United States' but also as 'us' -we are Route 66''. We have become who we are because of that journey, which 'saved' our lives. While we are approaching our destination we are starting to realise that. And that 'particular urban experience' is the very essence of an existential journey; that of the acquisition of our identity.
Nikos Georgopoulos
London,
March 2012
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