Real Estate #90894 1990

Editor: So, here we have Henry Wessel's photograph, "Real Estate #90894" from 1990. It's an image of a somewhat weathered pink house. I'm immediately drawn to how ordinary it is, yet there's this strange, almost surreal quality to its banality. What jumps out at you when you look at this, almost dreamlike, scene? Curator: You nailed it! "Dreamlike" captures the essence, doesn't it? Wessel was a master of capturing these pockets of oddity in the everyday. Look at how the light falls on that pink facade – it's almost aggressively pastel, clashing slightly with the overgrowth. I think Wessel's pulling at our comfortable notion of "home." What is real estate but a dream, sometimes? And a very *specific* kind of dream, packaged and sold. Do you feel that tension between aspiration and reality here? Editor: Definitely. The overgrown yard and slightly rundown appearance contrasts with the idealized image often associated with "real estate." It's like the dream is slightly…fading. Do you think that's intentional? Curator: Oh, I think he wants us to feel that discomfort. The way he frames it, too - almost clinical, as if he's cataloging rather than celebrating. Wessel’s photographs are brilliant because he held back on purpose. This kind of detached gaze feels honest, almost uncomfortably so. He sees it all, doesn’t comment…it's wonderfully unsettling. Editor: It’s amazing how much can be conveyed in something so seemingly simple. I’ll definitely look at suburban landscapes differently from now on. Curator: And that, my friend, is the magic of art! Shifting perspectives and revealing the extraordinary in the ordinary.