Moran is one of 17 photographers presenting work in “Roadside Attractions,” now on view at the Small Space Gallery at the Arts Council of Greater New Haven, at 70 Audubon St., and also at the Kehler Liddel Gallery at 873 Whalley Ave. But why in the world was Moran, who is standing beside his photo of a plastic but life-size brontosaurus from a theme park in Southern California, wearing what he termed his George Bush lame-duck (actually rubber-duckied) blazer to the opening Friday night?

We shall answer that pressing question later when we, along with Art Council Director of Artistic Services and Programs Debbie Hesse, analyze Moran’s second contribution to the exhibition: a photograph of a Florida roadside sign, large blue letters on a white background enticing passing motorists with the physically challenging lure, “Feed Live Gators While Golfing.”

In fact signage in all its great American variety - for we, after all, are the great and often guilty progenitors of all things advertising - along with recurrent strains of humor were two of the themes in this engaging exhibition of some 60 works guest-curated by Suzan Shutan. (She is pictured beside New Haven photographer Paul Duda’s print of a country lane in Bellefonte, Pennsylvania.) Shutan, a member of the Council’s visual arts advisory council and a photographer herself, said she has wanted to do such an exhibition since the 1970s when she came across a book, whose title escaped her, listing alphabetically by city and state quirky “roadside attractions” all across America and how to get there.

“I still have that book, and it guides me on all kinds of adventures still.” This exhibition, she explained, came together quickly when she put out the word. Contributors could interpret “road” any way they wanted to. The only restriction is that it had to be the American road. “As it turned out almost all these artists are in mid-career - including Sven Martson, whose intriguing Fellini-esque “FDR (1974) NYC” is pictured. “They are in important collections, experienced, and recipients of grants. With so many shows in the art world featuring ‘new and emerging photographers,’” she said, “it’s really a pleasure to call attention to these mid-career people in all their accomplishments.”

Most of the photographers, such as Joy Bush, did not create works specifically for the exhibition. But being photographers, have for many years snapped pictures along the roadside, and were able to respond to Shutan’s call by drawing from their archives for “Roadside Attractions.” Bush is standing beside her photograph of a bust of Pope Pius XI from Holy Land USA, an 18-acre religious theme park, complete with a paper mache Bethlehem Inn, with a No Vacancy sign in front of it. “I was driving on Route 8 near Waterbury,” she explained, “in 1976, and I saw all these crosses along the road. I followed, and lo and behold, here was a quirky Biblical theme park, complete with the three kings and all the classic scenes. It was oddly spiritual, in no small part because the tackiness was mitigated by the tinfoil and chicken wire used to make many of the replicas. Now it’s all in disrepair and falling apart, tended by an order of nuns up there who are really not able to take care of it. It was started by a bizarre Yalie, and now, well, I make a pilgrimage there once every few years and photograph it. I find it moving.”

The humor in the photographs often has a social and political edge, it seemed to gallery visitor Cindy Sedlmeyer. Challenged by a reporter to find the humor in this photograph “Strategic Aerospace Museum” (Nebraska) by San Strembicki, she said: “Look at this broken-down bench right beside this missile. It’s as if to say,’Come on kids, bring the cooler and let’s sit down next to this rocket.’” There’s generally not enough humor in the art world, she said, and this exhibition is refreshingly different in that regard.

The oddball, quirky, and humorous should not be construed to lack serious artistic intent. “Everyone takes a camera and makes snapshots,” said Shutan, “and that’s good, because everyone understands what a roadside attraction means. But what some of these artists do by way of exploring different ways of seeing is really amazing.”

In Paul Duda’s work, for example, all the exposures are a minimum of 26 minutes. Why? “That’s the amount of time I’ve calculated that it takes, on average, for the light in the sky to shift. Anyone can take a picture of a grand site, a Yellowstone, or a gorgeous view along the roadside, and it will be grand. But try making grandeur out of your backyard. What I try to do is organize common objects, in a backyard, for example, and with the camera’s long exposure and the relationship among the elements it will add up to a kind of grandeur.” This summer Duda is publishing a book of his photographs of hutongs, alleys and backyards, of Beijing, China.

Video artist Howard Better has three panels in the exhibition. They are all stills pulled from his video cross dissolves, scenes of a flag, a wheelchair, and a hammer, all shot in the Bronx and other parts of New York. “I’m interested in the moment of transition from one image to another,” he said. “We see or really what we do is remember one image and it’s always in comparison with another. Our maps are constantly changing.” Like all the artists showing in the Council’s gallery, he has more, in his case, seven more panels, and larger-size work on display at the Kehler Liddel Gallery.

Another photographer, who also wears a different hat, as a sculptor, is Johanna Bresnick of New Haven. Her piece, Dromos I, features photographs of signs, diners, and buildings, including many damaged by hurricanes and other disasters, which she has taken along I-95 between Connecticut and Florida documenting the whole of that gloriously frustrating road. In her case, as a sculptor, she has cut out the photos, overlaid them, and given them a three-dimensionality that changes how they are seen if you move by them, as you would do on a real road, or, in the gallery, along the dark asphalt-looking black-painted vinyl that makes up two thirds of her composition. Dromos II, stretching six feet, is at the Kehler Liddel Gallery. She displayed her whole Dromos (Greek for race), in a 30-foot circular installation some years ago at the John Slade Ely House.

So why was Aidan Moran wearing his presidential lame-duck blazer? His son, Sam, who had fled from his father in embarrassment and preferred to be photographed beneath the brontosaurus, wasn’t sure. Moran’s artist statement, on the label beside the photo, gives a clue: “Get in car. Drive. One eye on road and other on roadside. See something cool. Jam on brakes. Slow down. Reverse. Go around the back. Stop the car. Get out. Photograph. Laugh. Repeat.” You will laugh, and repeat laugh at Roadside Attractions, which runs through March 16. The Small Space Gallery at 70 Audubon is open 9 to 5. The Kehler Liddel Gallery, where larger format works by the same photographers are to be seen, will be open weekends only in February, from 10 to 2. All the works are also for sale.

Oh, why the blazer? Moran said he was wearing it for the last time in a while because tomorrow he’s relinquishing it to be hung in an exhibition at the Golden Street Gallery in New London. The name of that exhibition is “Stuck on You.”

Sign Up for Email AlertsEmail This Story

Your Email:

Recipient's Email:
Your Email:
Message (optional):