Tumbleweeded

The tumbleweed, blown around by the wind, is familiar to us from many Westerns. It has evolved this ingenious method of dispersing its seeds to wherever the soil is fertile enough for it to grow. It is a perfect metaphor for American popular culture that swirls around the world and is, by its very nature, hyper-exportable.

This project began as an attempt to document the mania with which American imagery insidiously sticks its nose into the European cultural landscape, but, in the end, became caught up in it.

The images in this portfolio, which were all originally merely anecdotal, became more documentary as they addressed other people’s fantasies, built up from pieces of my own fantasies.

As clues to this trickery, some of the symbols I imported from the United States to photograph are presented in the packaging in which they arrived by post, before they were used in the images.
Some viewers will recognise my family members and close friends who posed for me in scenes inspired by television, the golden age of American photography and advertisements.

As the different landscapes roll by, the portfolio gently evolves into a photo album of an imaginary road-trip, where random meetings and minor incidents are presented in a candid gaze that cannot fool anyone. For this excessively cinematographic, “good old America” invites us to ask ourselves this final question: haven’t we all been tumbleweeded?

Johan Poezevara
Translation: Chris Bourne

Johan Poezevara’s portfolio received a Jury Commendation at the “Propositions d’artistes” competition in 2019.

Website: www.johanpoezevara.com

© Johan Poezevara, series Tumbleweeded, 2018