To have emerged from a past that no longer exists is the legacy, and perhaps the tragedy, of those who live long enough to alter and reconstitute their identity. For Pat Benincasa, the obsolescence of the Industrial Era in American history held not only dreams in its wake, but lives. Her work encompasses the structures, the towns and cities, the greater American landscape around them, and the specific if frequently forgotten accomplishments of figures from this world. She has taken cultural possession of the past. Within its fabric hides a rich palimpsest where memory and the imagination meet. She excavates and celebrates the details that make up this history. Benincasa’s oeuvre encompasses three distinct bodies of work. One is devoted to the industrial structures; the second to the streets and avenues of Rust Belt cities, that were known for specific industrial products, and became communities; and for her newest project, “Women At The Wheel,” a series of history markers commemorating the lives and accomplishments of many forgotten or little known pioneers in industry and women’s rights. She has recently completed a film exploring each of her female heroes, that in it comprises a related body of work extending her authority. In consideration of the history of place, one cannot do a greater justice than to attend to the structures and environments that have housed the engines of industry. Though these places lack the tenderness of homes in neighborhoods, they do not fail but to impress upon us the force of endeavor. In their obsolescence, they take on a grandeur that marks them not as mere detritus, but as historical ruins. Unlike many comparable structures possessed of symbolic identities, they occupy space that still may have some hope of being revitalized, if economic prosperity returns to the cities of Detroit, Flint, or Akron. Benincasa’s extended focus upon these structures and the environment which they characterized pays tribute to the importance of history, and though some may assume they also contribute to ruin porn, such attitudes do nothing to address either the questions of history or the need for change. Beninacasa does both. Though it may prove difficult for Americans to admit that these are in fact ruins, that even within our short national history, that some portion of the whole has reached a point beyond which it could not go.
PAT BENINCASA: A WOMAN OF INDUSTRY
PAT BENINCASA: A WOMAN OF INDUSTRY
PAT BENINCASA: A WOMAN OF INDUSTRY
To have emerged from a past that no longer exists is the legacy, and perhaps the tragedy, of those who live long enough to alter and reconstitute their identity. For Pat Benincasa, the obsolescence of the Industrial Era in American history held not only dreams in its wake, but lives. Her work encompasses the structures, the towns and cities, the greater American landscape around them, and the specific if frequently forgotten accomplishments of figures from this world. She has taken cultural possession of the past. Within its fabric hides a rich palimpsest where memory and the imagination meet. She excavates and celebrates the details that make up this history. Benincasa’s oeuvre encompasses three distinct bodies of work. One is devoted to the industrial structures; the second to the streets and avenues of Rust Belt cities, that were known for specific industrial products, and became communities; and for her newest project, “Women At The Wheel,” a series of history markers commemorating the lives and accomplishments of many forgotten or little known pioneers in industry and women’s rights. She has recently completed a film exploring each of her female heroes, that in it comprises a related body of work extending her authority. In consideration of the history of place, one cannot do a greater justice than to attend to the structures and environments that have housed the engines of industry. Though these places lack the tenderness of homes in neighborhoods, they do not fail but to impress upon us the force of endeavor. In their obsolescence, they take on a grandeur that marks them not as mere detritus, but as historical ruins. Unlike many comparable structures possessed of symbolic identities, they occupy space that still may have some hope of being revitalized, if economic prosperity returns to the cities of Detroit, Flint, or Akron. Benincasa’s extended focus upon these structures and the environment which they characterized pays tribute to the importance of history, and though some may assume they also contribute to ruin porn, such attitudes do nothing to address either the questions of history or the need for change. Beninacasa does both. Though it may prove difficult for Americans to admit that these are in fact ruins, that even within our short national history, that some portion of the whole has reached a point beyond which it could not go.