Martin Adolfsson, St. Andrews Manor, Shanghai, China
I'm digging Martin Adolfsson's work. Especially his Suburbia Gone Wild. I enjoy how at first I thought these were rather typical suburban landscape pictures that have been popular for some time now and then you notice that this isn't America's suburbia. This is the world copying America's bad habits and bad example and its frightening.
I think I even found the real estate listing here: http://www.newportchina.com/propertyinfo.php?pr=0.07607&hid=2699&uid=29463
From Martin Adolfsson's statement:
Within the past two decades we've seen a huge shift in the balance of economic power. Countries that didn't have a middle class 20 years ago have seen a rapid transformation from an agricultural economy to an industrial based economy so much so that a sizable percentage of the population now belongs to the middle class. How does that affect the social groups who have been able to benefit the most from the economic boom? How does that influence one's identity when the change is so rapid? What happens to the native culture amidst the economic influence of international status?
I've chosen to put my focus on the model homes built in recently constructed suburbs for the newly minted upper middle class. These full-scale replicas act as giant shopping windows decorated with a ready to buy lifestyle for the homebuyer. When the projects is finished I will have depicted model homes in 7 suburbs spread across the rising economies of the world. By omitting geographical and national traces I want to create a strong visual narrative between the suburbs. The similarities interest me more then the national and cultural differences. My intentions are to create a visual narrative that takes the viewer in front of the scenes of a new global movement.
A project by Martin Adolfsson http://www.martinadolfsson.com