Jon Bobby Benjamin
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| still holding the wolf by the ear/ i'll make the monuments to an ad campaign from our youth/ turn on the brightest lights, i wanna see my soul 2009 L 18 x 26 inches, R 18 x 24 inches digital photograph diptych |
from the series you need to save your time 2008 dimensions vary (5 x 7 x 7 inch base) vellum, graphite, burnt wood, paint |
from the series you need to save your time 2008 dimensions vary (5 x 7 x 7 inch base) vellum, graphite, burnt wood, paint |
from the series you need to save your time 2008 dimensions vary (5 x 7 x 7 inch base) vellum, graphite, burnt wood, paint |
build a fort 2008 7.5 x 10 inches vellum, graphite, paint, paper |
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| there's a city under the city, deeper, before this new city 2008 7.5 x 10 inches vellum, graphite, paint, paper |
i do not want to go fishing today i do not want to get wet 2008 7.5 x 10 inches vellum, graphite, paint, paper |
this is the best new thing 2008 10 x 30 inches silkscreen print |
family history grows like a tumor - we live in a compound where iím from; itís not a good thing, itís the best thing 2008 each 24 x 18 inches cut paper and vellum diptych |
stay warm all winter 2009 28 x 8 x 12 inches wood, mdf, chipboard, paint |
Artist's information
Artist Statement
The ghosts of an industrial past linger in our present, leaving a permanent footprint, an afterimage that can never fully be razed or removed. My recent work focuses on these architectural remnants - defunct houses and barns, weathered structures, and disintegrating object-artifacts. It draws on the urban landscape of Philadelphia and DC, as well as on the scenery of my hometown, a small working-class coastal city in Massachusetts. I present massive, impersonal decaying structures lifted from these locales as delicate and intimate spaces by recreating them on a minute scale.
My work explores the connection between personal and family history and a generalized version of the American experience that grew out of a consumerist culture. The idealism of Ford truck commercials, Dorothea Lange photographs, Marlboro billboards, and 1960s Midwestern postcards has become a visual representation of our national morality and sense of character; my work builds off of what others have claimed America looks like or should look like. Houses have become a dominant theme in my imagery; while remaining completely anonymous and neutral, the image of a house can represent the most personal and private space. It is this confluence of desires - one for hard truth and specificity, the other for nostalgia and oversimplification - that underscores all of my current work.