Rust
Rust
Rust
Rust
Rust
Rust
Rust

Rust

The group exhibition Rust looks at the decline of the American Rust Belt through the work of Bernd and Hilla Becher, Stephen Shore and LaToya Ruby Frazier. Their nuanced takes offer complementary views on the industrial Northeast and Midwest since the late 1970s to the present day, against a backdrop of wider societal changes in the face of drastic industrial regression.

The work of Bernd and Hilla Becher is characterized by a minimalistic presentation with an emphasis on form and architecture. In the late 1960s and 70s they made several journeys to the Rust Belt and documented the now obsolete industries of the area. The Bechers’ life project as custodians and preservers of the industrial landscape, and of cataloguing and ordering their photographs, lies in stark contrast to the entropy they portray. Despite the lack of people in their depictions, the artists' rigor and apparent detachment nevertheless belies a deeply felt compassion for the buildings and structures they portray and the people associated with them.

In the ealry 1970s Stephan Shore and Hilla Becher developed an artistic friendship, that was mutually influential. Shore tells the story with a focus on the strain put on the people and town of the Rust Bell in a series of photographs originally commissioned by Fortune Magazine in 1977.

Working more recently LaToya Ruby Frazier examines the political, social and economic ramifications of the crises within the Rust Belt. Her practice is rooted in her hometown of Braddock, Pennsylvania, once a thriving subburb of Pittsburgh, which also became her subject.

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