The Ryerson Image Centre presents Phil Bergerson: Emblems and Remnamts of the American Dream on view January 22 – April 13, 2014.
Since 1995, Canadian photographer Phil Bergerson has made dozens of extended road-trips, criss-crossing the United States in search of the ‘American Dream’. Drawing upon the social landscape tradition, Bergerson found his material amid the melancholic detritus of the contemporary city: in modest store window displays, hand-painted murals, graffiti, and crudely-made signs. Here is a chaotic urban topography, one fuelled by unmoored dreams, raw desires, commercial fantasies, rampant patriotism, religious fervour, and a smouldering violence. The sumptuous colour photographs elicit a sense of both wonderment and disquiet, and ultimately a yearning for order, for meaning.
RYERSON IMAGE CENTRE – 33 GOULD STREET, TORONTO, ONTARIO M5B 2K3 | 416.979.5164