Opening Fri 3/28 @ 7pm
Artist talk Sat 3/29 @ 2 pm
By Hollie Gibbs
A knife stuck into a wall.
An oil stain on concrete.
A spent shotgun shell.
Blood-streaked snow.
A map of an infamous murder spree.
Fragments.
Traces.
Clues.
Retracing the path of a famous crime spree, capturing the ride in muted shades of green, yellow and blue, photographer Christian Patterson followed the blood-drenched route of 19-year-old Charles Starkweather and 14-year-old Caril Ann Fugate on Starkweather’s savage 1958 week-long murder road trip across Nebraska and into Wyoming.
The notorious story inspired such movies as Badlands and Natural Born Killers along with works by Stephen King and Bruce Springsteen, and now Patterson’s photo book Redheaded Peckerwood.
“I started my work by tracing this path 500 miles west, and then retracing it 500 miles east, making photographs along the way,” Patterson explained. “I ultimately did this five times, during five successive very cold, harsh Januaries usually working 7-10 days each time, during the same time of year when the story took place… I searched for traces of the past in the present — places and things of significance to the story, evidence of these events that remained out there in the world. I found things that I never imagined I would find, including personal belongings and pieces of evidence that were never recovered by the detectives who worked the case.”
Patterson also located old newspapers, press releases and news alerts, police and press photographs, and original courtroom sketches. He found personal effects from the killer and victims and poured over crime scene photos and the murder weapons.
He compiled his own photographs along with copies of evidence he acquired into Redheaded Peckerwood, one of 2011’s best received photo books (now in its third edition).
“I don’t openly identify which pieces are original or recreated,” Patterson said. “That’s an essential part of my approach to this story and a way of adding to the mystery, or encouraging additional reading of this work, conjecture and speculation on various aspects of this story. In some cases, I think it’s possible to ascertain what’s what, but one needs to see the work in person to begin to form any opinion.”
Clevelanders will be given that opportunity as The Transformer Station exhibits the largest installation of this work yet, including several never before seen items such as a sculpture that incorporates the hood ornament of the car Starkweather drove across Nebraska.
“Redheaded Peckerwood is a large, obsessive body of work,” Patterson said. “Photographically, it employs a wide variety of photographic techniques and styles — black and white and color, work on location and staged still lifes in the studio, appropriated and original, real and recreated/fact and fiction. Photographs are the heart of what I do, but they’re complemented and informed by documents, drawings, paintings and objects; even shotgun blasts on paper. I believe that this approach creates a more intimate, visceral and immersive experience, in book and exhibition form.”
Patterson said it was not his intention to sensationalize the story.
“Ultimately, I wanted the work to act as a more complex, enigmatic visual crime dossier — a mixed collection of cryptic clues, random facts and fictions that the viewer has to navigate with on their own, to some extent,” he explained. “During the making of this work, I traveled the same roads, visited the same places, entered a few of the same homes, held some of the same pieces of paper, sat in the same car and held the same weapons as those involved. There were times when I felt very close to the story, and there are certain points in my work where a very pointed, very specific truth and veracity emerges, only to be blurred by other pieces of the puzzle.
“With Redheaded Peckerwood, I’ve attempted to reconstruct, then deconstruct and finally fragment this story, to turn it inside out.”
Redheaded Peckerwood runs as a concurrent show with Jordan Tate’s SUPERBLACK at the Transformer Station March 29 – June 14, with a public opening party featuring DJ Christopher Eff, refreshments and a cash bar on Friday, March 28, from 7 to 9 p.m. Both Patterson’s award-winning third edition of “Redheaded Peckerwood” and Tate’s new book “SUPERBLACK” will be available there for purchase.
Patterson will discuss the exhibit at The Transformer Station on Saturday, March 29, at 2 p.m.
[Images: Copyright 2011 Christian Patterson. Courtesy Rose Gallery]
Hollie Gibbs has a BS in journalism from Kent State University and studied photography at School of the Visual Arts in Manhattan. Her articles and photographs have appeared in numerous local and national publications. She can also be found playing guitar with various bands and building life-size monster props.
Cleveland, OH 44113