Hailing from Southern California, John Divola is heavily influenced by an aesthetic prevalent in this dusty corner of America; manmade structures at odds with their overwhelming surroundings … a landscape that can quickly swallow what man puts in its path.

Currently showing at New York gallery Maccarone, Theodore Street Project is a series of photographs that document a decaying home in Moreno Valley, California, between 2008 and 2013; man and nature reversing the progressive march of civilisation. Initially capturing shots with an 8 x 10 view camera, Divola returned with a Gigapan scanning device — developed for NASA’s Mars Rover cameras — that captures 120 images during an exposure of up to 20 minutes, before digitally compositing a single super-high-resolution photograph. The results are absorbing works that take their audience out into the desert, into the degenerating structure; vandalism, natural erosion, Divola’s additive paintings and eerie cameos, narrative steeped in unpredictability and unease.

John Divola, Theodore Street Project, runs at Maccarone, New York, till 23 April.

@maccaronellc

JOHN DIVOLA
Landscape for Antonioni, 9_8_2010, 4:56PM – 5:17PM, 33.94522, -117.138789, 2010
Pigment print on rag paper, mounted to Dibond
42 x 96 inches (106.7 x 243.8 cm) Edition 1 of 5

JOHN DIVOLA
Theodore Street, 33.94522, -117.138789, 5/6/2012, 3:00PM -3:13PM, 2012
Pigment print on rag paper, mounted to Dibond
46 x 96 inches (116.8 x 243.8 cm) Edition 1 of 5

JOHN DIVOLA
Theodore Street, 33.94522, -117.138789, 1/27/2012, 3:31PM -3:3:54PM, 2012
Pigment print on rag paper, mounted to Dibond
45 x 60 inches (114.3 x 152.4 cm) Edition 1 of 5

JOHN DIVOLA
Theodore Street, 33.94522, -117.138789, 5/20/2012, 6:24PM – 6:42PM, Solar Eclipse 5/20/2012 6:38 PM, 2012
Pigment print on rag paper, mounted to Dibond
30 x 60 inches (76.2 x 152.4 cm) Edition 1 of 5