Mirror to the World: Notes on Locations

Each photographer in the Mirror to the World show provided a brief statement to accompany their images. Below is the text from mine, which includes notes on the locations represented. The show remains up at Photoworks at Glen Echo Park through April 17. More info and gallery hours here.

Mark Parascandola

My first experiences with photography were associated with abandoned architecture. When I was about 12, I received a small German camera with a 110 film cartridge as a gift from a family friend. At the time, a department store was being demolished in downtown Madison, Wisconsin, where we lived. I filled a whole roll of film with images that juxtaposed store signs and architectural details with formless rubble. I continue to be fascinated with old, abandoned buildings today and what they can tell us about how human communities change and interact with the natural world. Here are notes on the locations in these photos:

Carabanchel: In October 2008 I photographed the interior of the former Carabanchel prison in Madrid, one of the most infamous architectural landmarks from Spain’s decades of dictatorship. General Francisco Franco ordered construction of the complex in the 1940s to house the regime’s many political prisoners. After the prison was finally closed in 1998, the building became a haven for squatters, graffiti artists, and curious visitors. A month after my visit the entire structure was demolished to make way for a new urban development.

Santa Isabel: In 1966 John Lennon spent three months in Almeria, on the southern coast of Spain, while he played the role of Private Gripweed in the black comedy How I Won the War. John and his then-wife Cynthia rented a villa, known as Santa Isabel, from a wealthy local family. It was here that Lennon began writing the verses to Strawberry Fields Forever. The grand house later fell into disrepair, but has recently been reopened as a museum of cinema. This photograph of the entry hall was taken just before the renovations started.

Los Escullos: The landscape of the Cabo de Gata natural park, along the coast of Almeria, is dotted with architectural remains from the times of the Moors to relics of modern industrialization. The photograph here shows an 18th century fortification at night.

The Buckner Building: The Buckner Building in Whittier, Alaska, an enormous complex built in 1953, housed an entire town under one roof, including a theater, industrial kitchens, and medical clinics. Today the unused building is rapidly deteriorating due to flooding and exposure to weather conditions. The presence of asbestos has thwarted efforts to demolish it. I was intrigued by how the building is being rapidly transformed by its surrounding environment.

Miami Marine Stadium: The stadium was built in 1964 to host power boat and hydroplane races off Key Biscayne. A floating stage was later used to host outdoor concerts and other events over the years. However, the site was closed in 1992 after Hurricane Andrew and has remained unused and largely unnoticed off the Rickenbacker Causeway. I was struck by the almost perfect orderliness of the stadium seating, broken only by a few disjointed seats and the tagging of local graffiti artists.  

Belmont Street Facade: In 2008 an old apartment building near the corner of Belmont and 14th street was gutted for renovation while the facade was held up with supports. I photographed the construction site at night and was intrigued by the unusual patterns of light and shadow and the complex textures in the century-old wall. Unfortunately, the effort to save the facade failed and it was later torn down.

Spanish Ghosts: Notes on the Locations

I provided some information at the Spanish Ghosts exhibition about the locations where the photographs were taken. These buildings and spaces have many intriguing stories behind them that add to their significance. Here are the descriptions:

Cortijo del Fraile: Federico Garcia Lorca's Bodas de Sangre was inspired by a true story that appeared in a Spanish newspaper in 1928. A bride-to-be ran off with another man (her cousin) the night before the wedding, but the groom's brother discovered the couple and shot and killed the lover. The bride-to-be lived on a farm called El Fraile. Over 75 years later, the ruins of the farm remain in the remote countryside of Nijar in Almeria, accessible only by a poorly marked, unpaved road. These images show part of the chapel building on the property.

Carabanchel: In October 2008, I spent two days photographing the interior of the former Carabanchel prison in Madrid, one of the most infamous architectural landmarks from Spain’s decades of dictatorship. General Francisco Franco ordered construction of the complex in the 1940s to house the regime’s many political prisoners. After the prison was finally closed in 1998, the building was heavily looted—all the metal gates and fixtures were removed—and it became a haven for graffiti artists, drug addicts, homeless immigrants and curious observers. The month after my visit the entire structure was demolished to make way for new development of condominiums and a hospital.

Santa Isabel: In 1966 the Beatles renounced performing live after more than four years of relentless touring around the world. As a change of pace, John Lennon took on the role of Private Gripweed in Richard Lester's black comedy How I Won the War, which spent three months filming in the desert of Almeria, on the southern coast of Spain. John and his then-wife Cynthia rented a villa, known as Santa Isabel, from a wealthy local family. It was here that Lennon began writing the verses to Strawberry Fields Forever, immortalized on a series of low-fi recordings in which Lennon's voice and acoustic guitar reverberate through the villa's grand rooms. The grand house later fell into disrepair, but is now being renovated into a museum of cinema. These photographs were taken just before the renovations started.

Tabernas: During the 1960s and 1970s, the desert around Tabernas was used as a backdrop for numerous films, including Sergio Leone’s early Spaghetti Westerns starring Clint Eastwood. Film sets that Leone built to look like towns in the American West have been preserved in the dry climate and have now become a tourist destination for curious visitors and film fans. The remains of Leone’s Flagstone set from Once Upon a Time in the West are more remote, but the Phoenix Bank is still partially standing.

Cabo de Gata: The landscape of Cabo de Gata, along the coast of Almeria, is dotted with architectural remains. The photographs here show the interiors of an abandoned house marked with graffiti, a 19^th century church adjacent to a salt-processing plant, and an 18^th century fortification.

Idylls at the World Bank

The Idylls show at the World Bank ended last week. Here are a few photos in case you didn't get to see it in person. The building itself is a work of art, so it was inspiring to see the work of familiar friends and DC artists in this unique space.

All Photographers Now

For a few seconds my Carabanchel image was on display at the New York Photo Festival. Actually, it's not a particularly exclusive honor, as anyone who submitted a photo through the website had their work projected on the wall in the festival headquarters. But the organizers went a step further and emailed a photograph of each projected image to the artist who submitted. The photograph provides evidence for those who missed their brief moment in the spotlight.

Idylls

Idylls

In partnership with the World Bank Art Program
juried by Andrea Pollan, Director of Curator's Office

The World Bank
Main Complex Front Lobby Gallery
1818 H Street, NW
Washington, DC 20433

Opening reception on Friday, May 29 from 6-8pm. The works can also be viewed around the clock from the glass exterior of the building on H Street between 18th and 19th Streets, NW.

Washington Project for the Arts and the World Bank Art Program are pleased to present a collaborative exhibition, Idylls. The goal of this exhibition is to see how artists of this greater metropolitan area interpret the idea of an idyll or a utopian environment. The show features works selected by juror Andrea Pollan from submissions by WPA member artists. Andrea Pollan is an independent curator and director and founder of Curator's Office, a contemporary art gallery in DC. In this unique collaboration with Washington Project for the Arts, the World Bank Art Program will, for the first time, be working with a DC-based curator to show works by area professional artists.

Selected artists include:

Christene Carr
Sara Clark
Benjamin Edwards
Amy Glengary Yang
Pat Goslee
Tom Greaves
Bridget Sue Lambert
Barbara Liotta
Isabel Manalo
Mark Parascandola
Diane Szczenpaniak

The idyll is a special variant of utopia, an imagined paradise-like, timeless little piece of earth, but actually not of this world. Formally, the idyll is a literary category, a mode of narrating and writing. This literary mode was joined by a musical one, and later by a visual artistic one, a mode of the drawn picture and of painting. This mode is fully furnished...The premise of this exhibition, which was selected from a juried process across the greater Washington, DC metropolitan area, is to define how diverse that vision of an idyll can be. After all, most of the artists in this exhibition have urban lives... -Andrea Pollan

The World Bank Art Program began shortly after the opening in 1997 of the Bank's new Washington DC Main Complex - a spacious building of steel and glass that permits ample natural light into an atrium. This new space was the catalyst for developing a collection policy and creating a program that showcases the visual arts of member countries. The Art Program's activities reflect an implicit understanding of art and culture as integral forces of human development in the broadest sense. Its mission is to promote and draw awareness to contemporary art from member nations with particular emphasis on emerging artists from developing countries.

Idylls

_{May 29 - July 3, 2009
Organized by the Washington Project for the Arts and the World Bank Art Program
Juried by Andrea Pollan, Director of Curator's Office}
Opening Reception: Friday, May 29 6-8pm

The World Bank
Main Complex, Front Lobby Gallery
1818 H Street, NW
Washington, DC

Four photographs of mine from abandoned sites in Spain, including the Carabanchel prison, will be included in this exhibition. The theme of the exhibition is focused on artists interpretations of or responses to the idea of an idyll or utopian environment. More details about the show and its theme are available on the WPA site at: http://www.wpadc.org/events/upcoming.html

Here's an excerpt from my artist statement about these images:

"To me, an idyll represents not a fixed condition, but an acceptance of change and a capacity to envision a better future. My intention in the photographs included here was to depict buildings that were constructed with utopian ideals (albeit sometimes misguided) but that have undergone dramatic alterations over time. While these buildings are seemingly abandoned and decaying, they show evidence of alternative uses by more recent visitors, as well as the potential for transformation."

Cárcel de Carabanchel

The Carabanchel prison in Madrid is one of the most infamous architectural landmarks from Spain’s decades of dictatorship. General Francisco Franco ordered construction of the prison in the 1940s to house the regime’s many political prisoners. The complex is designed on the panopticon model, with the cell blocks extending outwards from a round central tower. This arrangement, first proposed by 17^th century philosopher Jeremy Bentham, allowed guards to easily observe all areas of the prison and was intended to amplify the prisoners’ sensations of powerlessness.

Carabanchel was finally closed in 1998 and its few remaining inhabitants moved to other prisons. Since then, the building has been heavily looted—all the metal gates and fixtures have been removed—and it has been visited by graffiti artists, drug addicts, gypsies and curious observers.

The Spanish government now wants to make the site available to private developers with plans for condominiums and a hospital. However, an informal group of architects, social workers, neighbors, and former prisoners have demanded that part of the prison be preserved as a memorial to those who suffered under the dictatorship. Members of the Platform for a Center for Peace and Memory have held a series of demonstrations and camped out near the site.

Just a few weeks ago the fate of the structure appeared uncertain. A national judge had ordered a study of the prison for possible evidence relevant to ongoing investigations into crimes committed under Franco’s regime. And the Congress was debating legislation on the prison’s future. However, the Madrid city government effectively put an end to the debate by authorizing the start of demolition. Seventy people were removed from the complex, mostly Romanian gypsies who had been living on the site. Construction crews began work at 1:00 am on Wednesday October 22. By the following Saturday half of the 32-meter wide central cupula, the most architecturally significant element, had collapsed.

Carabanchel had drawn a following in recent months among amateur photographers and urban explorers, intensified by its pending destruction. Members of a Flickr group dedicated to the prison have been documenting the site and continue to track the demolition process in photographs.

I visited the prison in Early October, about three weeks before the demolition began. The photographs here show two hallways leading out from the panopticon. The halls of the cell blocks are said to be tapered inward slightly at their far ends, which allows the guards to see the entire length of the hallway and also accentuates the length of the structure, adding to the inmates’ feelings of powerlessness. I aimed to convey that sensation of exaggerated perspective in these photographs. These images also document the impact of the many visitors who have passed through the building over time. Unfortunately, the structure is now preserved only in photographs.