Photograph, gelatin silver print on paper, mounted on board
Tate Collection
Works with images
General Collection
Collection
<a href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/mark-ruwedel-13509" aria-label="More by Mark Ruwedel" data-gtm-name="header_link_artist" data-gtm-destination="page--artist">Mark Ruwedel</a>
Yermo 3
Accepted under the Cultural Gifts Scheme by H M Government from Jack Kirkland and allocated to Tate 2020
<p>This is one of several black and white gelatin silver prints in Tate’s collection from David Ruwedel’s ongoing series <span>Message from the Exterior</span>, begun in 2003. The series contains the sub-series <span>Dusk </span>(see Tate P14638–P14645 and P15069–P15071) and <span>Desert Houses </span>(see Tate L03189) as well as more self-contained works like <span>Neighbors #4 (Apple Valley) </span>2009 (Tate P15068). In all of the photographs that make up <span>Message from the Exterior</span>, individual houses in desert regions outside Los Angeles are captured in various states of dilapidation, showing the legacy of human influence on, and interaction with, the landscape. According to the artist, this collection of works presents<span> ‘</span>an inventory of a particular, and poignant, form of vernacular architecture. These modest structures are both humorous and tragic, alluding to the fragility of human endeavour in a harsh environment.’ (Mark Ruwedel, in ‘Introduction to Mark Ruwedel’, <span>Les Recontres d’Arles</span>, 2011, https://www.rencontres-arles.com/en/expositions/view/653/mark-ruwedel, accessed 20 August 2019.)</p>
paper print photograph gelatin silver mounted board
Yermo #3
image: 190 × 242 mm
Accepted under the Cultural Gifts Scheme by H M Government from Jack Kirkland and allocated to Tate 2020
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<p>This is one of several black and white gelatin silver prints in Tate’s collection from David Ruwedel’s ongoing series <i>Message from the Exterior</i>, begun in 2003. The series contains the sub-series <i>Dusk </i>(see Tate <a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/ruwedel-dusk-50-p14638" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>P14638</span></a>–<a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/ruwedel-dusk-40-p14645" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>P14645</span></a> and <a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/ruwedel-dusk-57-antelope-valley-p15069" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>P15069</span></a>–<a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/ruwedel-dusk-62-hinkley-p15071" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>P15071</span></a>) and <i>Desert Houses </i>(see Tate L03189) as well as more self-contained works like <i>Neighbors #4 (Apple Valley) </i>2009 (Tate <a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/ruwedel-neighbors-4-apple-valley-p15068" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>P15068</span></a>). In all of the photographs that make up <i>Message from the Exterior</i>, individual houses in desert regions outside Los Angeles are captured in various states of dilapidation, showing the legacy of human influence on, and interaction with, the landscape. According to the artist, this collection of works presents<i> ‘</i>an inventory of a particular, and poignant, form of vernacular architecture. These modest structures are both humorous and tragic, alluding to the fragility of human endeavour in a harsh environment.’ (Mark Ruwedel, in ‘Introduction to Mark Ruwedel’, <i>Les Recontres d’Arles</i>, 2011, <a href="https://www.rencontres-arles.com/en/expositions/view/653/mark-ruwedel">https://www.rencontres-arles.com/en/expositions/view/653/mark-ruwedel</a>, accessed 20 August 2019.)</p>
<p>In the <i>Desert Houses</i> photographs, abandoned houses are depicted straight on, shown in the centre of the frame and photographed during the daytime. Sprawling or squat, in various states of dilapidation, the houses appear to be returning to the land on which they were built. Although the houses vary greatly in size, architectural style and stage of abandonment, they all share a sense of vulnerability and precariousness. Similarly,<i> </i>the photographs from the <i>Dusk </i>sub-series show the geographical isolation of these vacant dwellings after the sun has set. In each photograph, the horizon line cuts the composition in half and a solitary house is framed at the centre of the image, against the backdrop of a deserted landscape. The sky’s variable tones directly impact the lighting of each image; there are no shadows and the edges of the houses are sharp, underlining their isolation within the landscape. <i>Neighbors #4 (Apple Valley)</i> is a set of two gelatin silver prints depicting two houses in the same desert region. Presented side by side, the two houses seem almost identical, with the same number of windows, roofing style and cutaway entrances. The only discernible difference is within the wider landscape: in one image the foreground is covered in desert grasses, while in the other it is mostly barren. The isolation of these two houses is emphasised by their display alongside one another, evoking a comedic image of suburbia, shattered.</p>
<p>All of his series show Ruwedel’s ongoing interest in the dynamic relationship between the man-made and natural environment and his interest in ‘the evidence left behind by the human use of place and space’ (quoted in ‘Mark Ruwedel Interviewed by Stanley Wolukau-Wanambwa’, <i>Paper Journal</i>, 27 February 2017). Human influence is also shown to be comically hubristic in <i>Westward the Course of Empire (RR tunnels) </i>1996–2006 (Tate <a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/ruwedel-columbia-and-western-21-p79979" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>P79979</span></a>–<a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/ruwedel-camas-prairie-19-p79990" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>P79990</span></a>, <a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/ruwedel-spokane-portland-and-seattle-5a-rr-tunnel-p15053" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>P15053</span></a>–<a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/ruwedel-tonopah-and-tidewater-40-rr-grade-p15060" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>P15060</span></a> and <a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/ruwedel-northern-pacific-13-rr-cut-p15062" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>P15062</span></a>), which examines the impact on the landscape of the railroads built in the US and Canadian West during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The landscape is figured both as passive terrain and active agent, and it is the play between the two that Ruwedel draws on throughout his work, as in <i>Message from the Exterior</i>.</p>
<p>Ruwedel’s series reveal a focused interest in cataloguing and collecting, presenting many examples of a specific phenomenon – he made 500 prints in the case of <i>Westward the Course of Empire</i>, although only seventy were used in the eventual publication.  Ruwedel’s work can also be read as historical evidence and typology, something he has noted himself when considering the legacy of his photography: ‘Regardless of their intentions almost all photographs grow up to become documentary photographs … my assumption is that they have some sort of information in them that someone might find of use.’ (‘Mark Ruwedel, interview by The Photographers’ Gallery’ 2019, <a href="https://thephotographersgallery.org.uk/content/db2019-mark-ruwedel">https://thephotographersgallery.org.uk/content/db2019-mark-ruwedel</a>, accessed 20 August 2019). Ruwedel has stated that his work develops out of ‘being out there and photographing and looking around’ (‘Mark Ruwedel, ‘Mark Ruwedel – Studio Visit’, <i>TateShots</i>, 6 December 2013, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kv64hL0VaGg">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kv64hL0VaGg</a>, accessed 22 January 2020), his series unfolding organically and developing gradually over long periods of time, although some are shorter and self-contained (see <i>Crossing </i>2005, <a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/ruwedel-crossing-2-p14602" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>P14602</span></a>–<a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/ruwedel-crossing-bottle-p14607" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>P14607</span></a>; and <i>Wendover Air Force Base: Nine Bomb Craters, Utah</i> 1999, printed 2008, Tate <a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/ruwedel-crater-1-p79991" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>P79991</span></a>–<a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/ruwedel-crater-9-p79999" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>P79999</span></a>).</p>
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<b>Further reading</b>
<br/>Mark Ruwedel, <i>Westward: The Course of Empire</i>, New Haven and London 2008.<br/>Sandra S. Phillips (ed.), <i>Exposed: Voyeurism, Surveillance and the Camera</i>, London 2010.<br/>Grant Arnold (ed.), <i>Mark Ruwedel</i>, Göttingen 2015.</p>
<p>Emma Jones<br/>August 2019<br/>Arthur Goodwin<br/>January 2020</p>
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Summary
2024-04-05T00:00:00
summary
SHORT_TEXT