By Phillip Buehler
Located in New York, NY
limited edition of 5, signed on reverse by the artist, Phillip Buehler. This photograph depicts the time ravaged former "Sound-a-Rama" storefront in the abandoned Wayne Hills Mall, in Wayne, New Jersey. A sign still hangs in the dilapidated and vacant store awning. The shop's waterlogged ceiling has collapsed, and pools of water have formed along the once busy hallway of the mall.
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...
Category
2010s Contemporary Color Photography
MaterialsArchival Pigment