Thousands of vehicles drive over the faces of Philadelphia society, and often are unaware.
Under Interstate 95, Zoe Strauss installed the faces, text and architecture of her Philadelphia neighborhood.
Strauss is a Philadelphia native and is currently an artist, photographer, installationist and author.
Despite the assumptions that Strauss’ work captures “marginal society,” she contends that her work actually captures central society.
“I’m not really interested in marginal society but just in society in general,” Strauss said. “It’s based around pretty much my everyday life. It’s not marginal at all, it’s central.”
Strauss stumbled on her talents after taking a few photography classes at a community college. By no means did she expect national recognition for her works.
“I work really hard and diligently and I have faith in my work, but in a billion years, who would have ever thought?” Strauss said. “I’m really just some lady. It’s constantly a shock and pleasure.”
At age 30, she began snapping photos of almost anyone and everything she encountered. She captured her subjects on complete intuition, and the results she gathered were better than she expected.
Beginning as a personal project, Strauss posted the photos under I-95 on each side of the large columns that supported the interstate.
People from her neighborhood came to view her work, which was later titled “Under I-95,” and from there, it gathered a substantial amount of attention.
Bill Horrigan, director of Media Arts at the Wexner Center, discovered Strauss’ work through previous installations and wanted her to be part of the Columbus scene. Soon after, he curated the Zoe Strauss photo project at the Wexner.
Because Strauss wasn’t searching for a career in art, it’s hard for her to understand that she is included in the artist world. She considers herself an installation artist, not a photographer.
“I wouldn’t say that I want to have a divide between myself and the artist world, it’s just that I didn’t come at the project through traditional art world thinking,” Strauss said. “It was more of a personal project. I was kind of sneaking in the back door, but who doesn’t want to be a part of that?”
In addition to with her installations, she has a photography book entitled “America.”
“America” wasn’t allowed to be published at first because of crude images. Strauss intended for the book to depict real American society, but when a picture of two men with Harley-Davidson emblem tattoos on their penises landed on a page, her publishing company wouldn’t agree to release it.
Strauss compromised with the publishers and extracted the photos, but intends to republish the book with the enactment of new censorship laws.
Strauss’ next project is going to be in England at the Brighton Photo Biennial. With the Biennial, Strauss created a list of 10 upcoming events in her life and posted them to her blog.
Her humor took a jab at her financial reality when she wrote, “finally, work a show at Bruce Silverstein, work on another big show about I-95, get a job with a regular paycheck to pay off debts. My wife has pretty much supported me and my work for the last 15 years, so maybe it’s time to contribute to our household finances,” as her No.8 thing to do.
Her installation resides on a single wall near the Wexner cafe, Cam’s on Campus, and near artist Mark Bradford’s installation.
Strauss is delighted for her work to be on display at the Wexner she said, because she loves the Wexner.
