Andrew Phelps

Arizona Trilogy

05.12.2015 – 15.01.2016

Andrew Phelps has been living in Salzburg since the 1990s but, together with his camera, frequently explores his old home of Arizona. Three series have until now been published as photographic books. Although they have their roots in the artist's biography, their symbolic power reaches much further. Phelps' works in the Soiz gallery records human transience and imposing nature, unrestrained building construction and the crumbling facade of capitalism. Arizona is omnipresent.

With his series 'Cubic Feet/Sec.' Andrew Phelps documents boat trips through the Grand Canyon which he took with his father over a thirty-year period. 'While I watched us both ageing, the Canyon remained more or less the same, a timeless, vast and incomparably beautiful backdrop,' says Phelps.

Andrew Phelps photographed his home town Higley, a rural community near the growing metropolis of Phoenix, at the turn of the millennium.

Farmers have sold their land and their deserted houses stand derelict only to be replaced by dormitory communities or shopping malls. After the 2008 economic crisis, Phelps returned to Higley to document the end of the American Dream. He has called this series 'Haboob,' the Arabic name for the destructive regional sand storms.