James Casebere Kitchen Window with Corral

Kitchen Window with Corral by James Casebere (b. 1953, Lansing, MI) consists of 11 mysterious pieces; each is an elaborate tableaux, constructed of Styrofoam and plaster objects painted a uniform color and photographed as a still life. The result is an intriguing compendium of haunting imagery dealing with issues of space and confinement. “I like addressing a different audience than those used to looking at photographs in galleries,” Casebere explained. “I like to make something that isn’t immediately recognizable as art—and then dismissed.”

Valerie Block from the New York Observer explained, “For the Penn Station lightboxes, Mr. Casebere chose to use some travel and stasis metaphors, along with the Western symbols he often employs: A covered wagon is set up with some emblematic objects suggesting dishes laid out for supper; a canoe is tangled in a fallen cactus that has sliced a dock; a corral fence is seen from a kitchen window, a Western hotel, whose form he copied from a still in a Clint Eastwood movie, is featured.”