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Beyond the Backyard

June 16 - August 23, 2008

Museum of Contemporary Photography
600 S. Michigan Ave.
Chicago IL 60605
tel.: 312-663-5554
hours: Mon-Sat 10-5, Thu 10-8, Sun 12-5
http://www.mocp.org/

The photographs of Beyond the Backyard reveal an array of middle-class conceptions, aspirations and follies, the images proving surprisingly insightful in their ability to capture and comment on the backyard as cultural phenomenon. This clever compilation of work by fifty photographers covers imagery from sod to lawn to mowing, from yards tumbled with toys to those tightly wedged-in as tiny patches of personal identity in otherwise faceless housing developments. Under the observant eye of the camera the yard is revealed as social space, as artificial, manipulable environment, persistently integral to our ideas of what constitutes and right and proper home. The inclusion of photographs of more constricted urban spaces, as far-flung as the grimy towns of Welsh miners and as near to home as the Chicago projects, provide a telling contrast to the sod-rolling and the meandering housing developments of the suburban American dream. The photos range from the 1940s to the present day, lending the additional dimension of exploring the phenomenon across several decades.

--Katherine R. Lieber

Katherine R. Lieber has edited ArtScope.net's Visual Arts reviews since 1998. Ms. Lieber is Editor and Associate Producer for ArtScope.net.