Redacted Topographies + The Neighborhood Store
Abstraction & Geography
Welcome to PROCSSS and thank you for subscribing! In this entry I'll be sharing some new collage illustrations and discussing the artistic philosophy that goes into creating them. I will also be sharing some recent photography from the Archival Recordings projects that ties back to my old neighborhood in Hollywood. All in all, there is a lot to get to so let's dive in!
Redacted Topographies
For the past 3 years or so I have been creating collage based illustrations using photographs from my archive. Like almost every major shift in my catalog, what initially began as a creative side quest has become a foundational element of my artistic practice. The work that I'm making now is the result of a series of disparate dots strewn across several mediums, coalescing into both an artistic philosophy and a visual aesthetic.
Regardless of medium, my creative output has always been rooted in a desire to document and contextualize my experiences growing up in Los Angeles. An innate desire to depict a version of life in the city that reflected life in the neighborhoods I came up in was imperative. This need was present at the very start and has taken several forms over the course of my time on this planet, from my teenage years making music in my friend Mike's attic to using my camera to document gentrification and my creative residency with the Los Angeles Public Library. Every step along the way opens the door to the next, establishing a starting point to continue building from.
Along those lines, I began using my abstract, shape drawings as a framework to present my photography in a new way. Acting as both the collage artist and the photographer allowed me to delve deep into my archive to select images that were tied to specific themes. I call this body of work "Redacted Topographies", a reference to the sharing of hidden experiences and location based interpretations pulled from my archive. The deconstructed/reassembled photographs incorporated into this work explore the complex network of people, lost structures, and disappearing communities that make up Los Angeles.
Archival Recordings (The Liquor Store on Wilcox)
For most, growing up in L.A. means having a corner liquor store that you frequented after school when you were a kid. For a while I lived off the corner of Hudson and Romaine in the residential part of Hollywood. In fact, even after my mother and I moved to Mid-City I continued to attend school in the area (Vine Street Elementary) and would walk to the Fremont library to wait for my mother to pick me up after work. There were two stores on the way to the library, Colbee Liquor and PJ Liquor (pictured above).
These stores sold a little bit of everything and of course, my friends and I went for candy and ice cream. It was kind of like a neighborhood meeting spot, you never knew who you would run into there. A lot of memories are formed in places like this so it's always jarring when a structure that loomed so large in your childhood experience is gone. That's exactly how I felt when I came across the gutted facade of my former neighborhood liquor store.
This isn't an argument for the continued existence of liquor stores, in many cases the negative aspects outweigh whatever nostalgic recollection seeing them stirs. But I can't help but feel a bit of sadness in seeing another part of my childhood disappear.
Thank you as always for your continued support of the PROCSSS newsletter! See y'all next time and stay safe out there...
-Kwasi