Skip to main content
Want more images or videos?
Request additional images or videos from the seller
1 of 5

Phillip Buehler
"The Town Mouse" Wayne Hills Mall, New Jersey (Modern Ruins) color photograph

2019

About the Item

limited edition of 5, signed on reverse by the artist, Phillip Buehler. The quaint facade of the beloved "Town Mouse" has fallen into disrepair amongst other artifacts in the abandoned Wayne Hills Mall. It's green entrance still holds the golden lettering and a figurine of a mouse sits along the top of the dilapidated storefront. This photograph is a featured in a solo exhibition of Phillip Buehler's photographs, entitled: “Mallrat to Snapchat: The End of the Third Place.” Front Room Gallery is proud to present “Mallrat to Snapchat: The End of the Third Place,” on view November 29th - January 12th. January recent work by photographer Phillip Buehler documenting the death of the Wayne Hills Mall in Wayne, New Jersey. This is Buehler’s second solo show at Front Room Gallery. Buehler’s exhibition is part photography, part installation, part cultural critique, mixed in with nostalgia and genuine affection for this very American economical and sociological experiment— The Mall. Buehler takes a very intimate look at the beginning, and possibly ending, of mall culture in the United States featuring not only photographs, but also artifacts from the mall and its opening year, 1973. Under a photograph of a desolate Sam Goody will be a bin filled with almost 100 albums from that year, that visitors can flip through and play in the gallery on a vintage record player. Buehler’s photos of iconic hangouts and lowbrow teenage meeting places ring out from the 1970’s, 80’s, and 90’s but are torn away from their movie soundtracks and sent into an apocalyptic icy future. Featuring Sam Goody, Waldenbooks, Toys R Us and many other familiar mainstays, Buehler shows these places ravaged and destroyed, familiar and frightening—a modern momento mori. Phillip Buehler’s photographs are a snapshot in time—just not the one you would expect. One photo filled with debris, and the Burlington Coat Factory sign in the background, features the platform where Santa Claus used to sit for hordes of children waiting to tell their Christmas wishes. In another the lofty, multilevel, ceilings of mauves teals are reflected in the flooded hallways next to a the ironic sign of the closed “Artworld” franchise. The subtitle of the exhibition is, “End of the Third Place,” a nod to a term coined by urban sociologist Ray Oldenburg in 1989. It refers to places where people spend time between home (first place) and work (second” place). In his influential book, “The Great Good Place,” Oldenburg explains why these 'thirds places' are essential to community and public life- arguing that bars, coffee shops, general stores, shopping malls strengthen community vitality. Between 1970 and 2010, the number of American shopping malls quadrupled. As a center of American culture, malls were the setting for “Fast Times at Ridgemont High”, “Dawn of the Dead” and the recent Netflix series, “Stranger Things.” But recent changes in the retail climate have led to the slow death of indoor shopping malls in America.* Phillip Buehler is a New York based photographer who documents the deterioration and remnants of neglected architecture constructed in the recent past. He is arguably the first to coin the neologism “modern ruins”. His photographs published in “Woody Guthrie’s Wardy Forty,” have won numerous awards, documenting the singer/songwriter/activist’s life at Greystone Park Psychiatric. He received his BA at Rutgers University and his MFA in photography at School of Visual Arts. Phillip Buehler has been featured in Art in America, The New York Times, Art News, The Art Newspaper, Wall Street Journal, American Photo Magazine, The Huffington Post, Hyperallergic, Gothamist, Art F City, The Sun, ABC, CNN, and numerous other publications. * New Jersey Dream Mall, a new amusement park/mall just opened after 17 years of construction and 5 Billion dollars in taxpayer’s money. And New York’s Hudson Yards is a new famous playground for the rich. In a grandiose attempt to evolve from the homogeny found in retail driven architecture of the indoor mall model, these new complexes are more akin to theme parks than malls.
  • Creator:
    Phillip Buehler (American)
  • Creation Year:
    2019
  • Dimensions:
    Height: 30 in (76.2 cm)Width: 40 in (101.6 cm)
  • More Editions & Sizes:
    18"x24", edition of 5Price: $1,20024"x30", edition of 5Price: $1,800
  • Medium:
  • Movement & Style:
  • Period:
  • Condition:
  • Gallery Location:
    New York, NY
  • Reference Number:
    1stDibs: LU6925343892
More From This SellerView All
  • Operating Room
    By Phillip Buehler
    Located in New York, NY
    24"x 30" photograph, edition of 5, signed on reverse This photograph was taken at Greystone Park Hospital, and shows a distressed abandoned operating room...
    Category

    21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Color Photography

    Materials

    Archival Pigment

  • Battle of Red Buttes, Casper, Wyoming, 2015
    By Edie Winograde
    Located in New York, NY
    From series “Place and Time”: Battle of Red Buttes, Casper, Wyoming, 2015 23'x29" edition of 10 available unframed Originally from northern California, Edie Winograde moved to ...
    Category

    21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Color Photography

    Materials

    Archival Pigment

  • Typewriter
    By Phillip Buehler
    Located in New York, NY
    24"x30" edition of 5 photograph available unframed Phillip Buehler has been photographing abandoned places around the world since he rowed to the (then abandoned) Ellis Island in 1974. Many, like Greystone Park Hospital, have since been demolished; some, like Ellis Island and the High Line, have been restored, and some, like the S.S. United States and the New York State Pavilion, are now in jeopardy. Photographs from the (now demolished) Greystone Park Hospital are featured in this exhibition and in the book “Wardy Forty” which he wrote in 2013 about the last days of Woody Guthrie...
    Category

    21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Color Photography

    Materials

    Archival Pigment

  • 4 Sinks
    By Phillip Buehler
    Located in New York, NY
    24"x 30" photograph, edition of 5, signed on reverse. This photograph is taken at Greystone Park Hospital, in an abandoned washroom, with a row of sinks lined up against a distres...
    Category

    21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Color Photography

    Materials

    Archival Pigment

  • Staircase
    By Phillip Buehler
    Located in New York, NY
    20"x 24" available unframed This photograph depicts a look down a stairwell at Greystone Park Hospital, from a central perspective showing the cascading stairs as they recede int...
    Category

    21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Color Photography

    Materials

    Archival Pigment

  • Bed Window
    By Phillip Buehler
    Located in New York, NY
    24"x 30" photograph, edition of 5, signed on reverse This photograph taken at Greystone Park Hospital shows an old single bed that has been abandoned. The bed has been decayed to the point of simply being a decayed bed frame and piled wooden bed boards...
    Category

    21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Color Photography

    Materials

    Archival Pigment

You May Also Like
  • 'Harvest Dance' Movement dance figures gold yellow orange fire nature wild
    By Sophia Milligan
    Located in Penzance, GB
    'Harvest Dance' Limited edition archival photograph. Unframed, hand signed and numbered _________________ Late August, captured in the glow of the evening sun, my daughters join han...
    Category

    2010s Contemporary Figurative Photography

    Materials

    Archival Ink, Archival Paper, Giclée, Archival Pigment

  • Mother of Two, Africa Photography - Limited Editions of 15
    By Dorte Verner
    Located in New York, NY
    This fine art print features back of a woman wearing Yellow-Gray scarf, holding two of her babies. This image was shot by Dorte Verner in Djibouti, East Afr...
    Category

    2010s Contemporary Color Photography

    Materials

    Archival Pigment

  • Geisha in the Rain (A) - Limited Editions of 15 - Japanese Culture Photography
    By Dorte Verner
    Located in New York, NY
    This Photograph features a beautiful Geisha walking it the rain holding a red umbrella. Geisha are Japanese women who entertain through performing the ancient traditions of art, danc...
    Category

    2010s Contemporary Color Photography

    Materials

    Archival Pigment

  • Geisha in the Rain (B) - Limited Editions of 15
    By Dorte Verner
    Located in New York, NY
    This Photograph features a side-view of a beautiful Geisha walking in the rain holding a purple umbrella. Geisha are Japanese women who entertain through performing the ancient tradi...
    Category

    2010s Contemporary Color Photography

    Materials

    Archival Pigment

  • Alas y Espinas
    By Cecilia Paredes
    Located in VALLAURIS, FR
    "I wrap, cover or paint my body with the same pattern as the backdrop and represent myself as a part of that landscape. With this act, I am building my own identity through the entou...
    Category

    2010s Contemporary Figurative Photography

    Materials

    Archival Pigment

  • Forest
    By Cecilia Paredes
    Located in VALLAURIS, FR
    "I wrap, cover or paint my body with the same pattern as the backdrop and represent myself as a part of that landscape. With this act, I am building my own identity through the entou...
    Category

    2010s Contemporary Figurative Photography

    Materials

    Archival Pigment

Recently Viewed

View All