the local vinatge gas station has been preserved and now is used as a museum and tourist welcome center. This station is located near the important transportation intersection of highway US 41A before the ascent to Sewanee and the CSX train line before it begins its ascent to the Cumberland Mtn Tunnel. The station still has three gas pumps, one for sky cheif and 2 for fire chief. In the service station, the museum has a 1936 Ford and a 1950 Ford Cowan has also preserved one of it's old fire engines that still gets the job when the call comes in.
A new book captures their strange appeal.
About The Artwork Gas Station at Night I (Stranger than Paradise) 1999, 37x36cm, Edition of 1/30, digital C-Print, based on a Polaroid. Certificate and Signature label. Artist Inventory #391.23. Not mounted. THE GREATER THE EMPTINESS THE GRANDER THE ART – Stefan Gronert Not “Twenty-six Gasoline Stations” but “29 Palms, CA”! Forty-two years after Ed Ruscha’s legendary book, there is no gasoline station at the beginning of the book that is here at hand. Instead it is the open hearted Radha – with orange hair, pink-colored overalls and a bashful, or rather cunning, gaze that is directed downward – with which this book begins! And with her and with Max – attention: a woman –, one whose appearance is in accordance with the same styling, it comes to an end as well – after Radha has in the meantime colored her fingernails pink, again endowed with the same open heartedness and the same look which now, however, reveals in combination with her altered facial expression an “old-maidish” turning away from the viewer. This may serve as an example for a vivid and understandable transformation which flows into a large-scale representation of a cheerless settlement beneath a shining, blue sky – there a figure, lost straightaway, becomes overwhelmed. Pictures which in 1998/99 play in the harsh California sunlight or in spaces that are not exactly cozy and comfortable. “Play” is the correct word in this regard, for precisely in view of the pictures of persons, there remains more than just doubt as to whether we are looking at staged scenes or have simply happened upon the high-strung “reality” of a (wannabe) film world. Yet not all the pictures have the same character of a glaring, plastic world. Upon flipping through the pages, we also encounter unpretentious, literally “colorless” scenes in undefined interiors, or unspectacular views resembling a still life and opening out onto a nowhere land. That which connects all participants in these picture-worlds is the observation that they appear to be exhausted, lost, empty or uncertain about their existence. One is almost reminded of the empty gazes and loneliness of the protagonists in the pictures of large cities painted by Manet or Degas in the era of Early Modernism. With one exception, all the photographs which are reproduced here, which originally measure 60 by 70 cm but which here, in their present size and configuration, make productive use of the possibilities presented by the medium of the book, manifest several elements of B-movies: smoking, naked, made-up and muscular persons who are not inclined to conform entirely to the vision of Hollywood dreams. Beauty and vexation, eroticism and loneliness enter into a mixture which reveals the rift between desire and truth. From a distance, one is reminded of the “Untitled Film Stills” of Cindy Sherman, which in this regard are not nearly as drastic. Yet whereas her photos from the seventies are characterized by a cool, objective mode of representation in historicizing blackand-white, the photographs of Stefanie Schneider evince a soft, sometimes seemingly pictorial visual language with a coloration ranging from the pale to the artificial-glaring. As in many other pictures of Stefanie Schneider which often present themselves to us as sequences, these photos refer back as well to the perceptual stereotypes of film. Making use of instant photography, proceeding from which significantly enlarged C-prints come into being, her pictures summon up the impression of a narration without ultimately becoming part of a plot that is readable in a linear fashion. The illusion of the narrative element, however, simply enhances the experience of a renunciation of just this aspect. For the picture titles as well – and also the title of this publication – provide no real help with the imaginary construction of a story. Nevertheless, names return which include the first name of the artist herself: hence is everything not in fact a game but rather a series of authentic and instantaneous images, or is it after all nothing other than a staging, a game – how real is life? The paucity of plot elements, which contradicts all expectation of a cinematic style, as well as the emptiness and loneliness of the persons, enters into a peculiar, sometimes seemingly surreal association with the magic of the sun-drenched expanses of the dreamlike landscape. Just as the fantasy and imagination of the viewer are stimulated, so to the same great extent does the redemption of these visual figures of love founder on a void whose glaze is created, not least of all, by the peculiar blurriness of the photographic representation. The seemingly amateur character of these pictures, which have in no way been treated with any excessive scrupulousness, leaves us with a stimulating incertitude as to their interpretation, one in which the spheres of reality, fiction or dream are scarcely capable any longer of being differentiated. Thus the gaps and the scenic openness of what is presented ultimately set in motion a self-appraisal. So what remains after “29 Palms, CA”? Perhaps that hope which deviates from the saying of Ruscha that is quoted in the title: The stronger the photography the better the reality will be! Translated by George Frederick Takis Original Created:1999 Subjects:Landscape Materials:Other Styles:ConceptualExpressionismModernPop ArtFine Art Mediums:PolaroidColorC-typePhoto Details & Dimensions Photography:Polaroid on Other Artist Produced Limited Edition of:30 Size:15 W x 15 H x 0.1 D in Frame:Not Framed Ready to Hang:Not applicable Packaging:Ships Rolled in a Tube Shipping & Returns Delivery Time:Typically 5-7 business days for domestic shipments, 10-14 business days for international shipments. Handling:Ships rolled in a tube. Artists are responsible for packaging and adhering to Saatchi Art’s packaging guidelines. Ships From:United States. Have additional questions? Please visit our help section or contact us.
There are many unique homes in the world, but very few started out as gas stations. Artist Robert Guthrie, from New Orleans, purchased a nearly 100-year-old gas station in his New Orleans neighborhood with the goal of turning it into a creative living space. Not everyone thought it was a good idea at first. Guthrie...
I saw this modified Mini Cooper driving by while I was filling up my car at a gas station in Berkeley CA. Look how tiny that thing is!
The man whose car was hit said the note completely changed his attitude about the whole incident.
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Gas stations in Iceland can be a little tricky when it is your first visit! We take you through Iceland gas stations and what to know!
A woman at a gas station noticed a spaceship landing in front of herAn alien stepped out of the spaceship and started to pump gas into itThe woman noticed the letters U.F.O. printed.. #funny, #joke, #humor
There actually used to be a a golden age of driving.
At a gas station, my husband, Jason watched an older lady fill up her car. As he was wondering
The design of gas stations is mostly stripped down to that required for bare function. The inextricable relationship of the aesthetics of modernism...
Protein bars aren't your only option for a high-protein snack on the road.
Travel Channel has rounded up 10 of the coolest rest stops, gas stations and truck stops around the world.
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A somewhat old Shell gas pump at a station in Greenville, Ohio.
Oregon Trail Camp Shell Gas Station, La Grande, Oregon. 1940. Standard Oil, Indian Teepee Hotel, Bardstown, Kentucky, 1940. W...
Download this Premium Photo about Gas station at night time, and discover more than 49 Million Professional Stock Photos on Freepik. #freepik #photo #petrolstation #fuelstation #gasstation
During the mid 1900s filling up was much different than just getting gas at a convenience store.
A gas station is a welcome sight on a long road trip - but you haven't seen one like this before. Step into one of Iowa's best hidden gems.
I remember these air pumps but don't remember gas being 26 cents a gallon.
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Australia's beautiful desert interior is deadly.
