LA Weekly,
Must See Art by Amra Brooks
Mark Mann: Last Resort at Taylor De Cordoba
April 18, 2007
Mann takes vintage
post cards and digitally alters them to create photographs that look
like off-kilter vacation souvenirs. At times, he pastes the same figure
over and over, creating a comical repetition, and other times, the
end result is a more disturbing, if not altogether more realistic,
representation of a family trip. Many depict the loneliness and isolation
of a child on the road with absent parents. In one, a child alone
in a motel room stands on a chair and stares directly into a TV screen
a la Poltergeist, in antoher, we see a child's back as it
sits on the edge of a made bed in a dimly lit motel room, a pair of
bare adult legs just visible at the edge of the frame; and, in another,
a child clutches a life preserver on a double bed. Others are more
comical: One shows a motel sign that reads Mecca, and in
another, a fully dressed figure is placed stepping into a swimming
pool. Mann's digital disruptions provide a welcome and subtle tweak
on collective nostalgia.
