If one passes by 5000 scenes in a typical commute, maybe one might be "funny" somehow --and photographer Jeff James will notice. Humor and a sort of pop art irony and social critique appear. Now hanging and up until Thurs 30 May 2013, a collection of his art photos / visual jokes will hang at PublicRadioArtSpace in WMRA's Harrisonburg facility. Art peekers welcome weekdays 9-5. Jeff's photo blog has many more images.
Artist's statement:
My series, The Friendly City, is an attempt to explore a single place and carve out of it a personal narrative of how I perceive the world and the American culture in particular. I use the Harrisonburg landscape as the vocabulary to talk about issues such as politics and religion, marketing and exploitation, fear and hope, time and age, etc. I make use of irony and humor in my framing to call attention to contradictions in our values and to disrupt the intended narrative of quaint or altruistic. I look at architecture and landscape and notice the attempts we make to beautify that which is in the process of decay. I find these details of a culture in transition (or decline) sadly poetic and occasionally they fill me with hope.
Map to the site. Past exhibits. Call to artists info.