MAS Context Presents: Phil Donohue: The Future Was Then
@ Society of Architectural Historians
1365 N Astor St, Chicago, IL 60610
Opening Thursday, October 3rd, from 6PM - 8PM
Filmmaker and photographer Phil Donohue portraits forgotten spaces and the sometimes lone people who inhabit them. Most of them seem to disappear shortly after he makes an image, unable to survive our current view of progress. In his 2019 book I dreamed it was better than it was, he explores the nostalgia of neglect and how we experience and remember these forgotten places in today’s digital age. The book is simultaneously an ode to the shopping malls, cultural centers, and physical structures that Phil grew up around and also a critique of the fact that some of our most precious memories are so deeply rooted in commerce that we have more feelings associated with a store, than we sometimes do our fellow man.
During this event, Phil Donohue will discuss his work, including the new project “The Future Was Then: Midwest Futurism Now” that captures built works of midwestern origin that imbued an imaginative approach to the future in the past. It is an exploration of works of a promised future in an era of diminishing returns.
MAS Context, a 501c3 nonprofit organization, is supported in part by private donations. For information about how to support MAS Context, please visit: www.mascontext.com/support
Image: College Life Insurance Company Headquarters (Kevin Roche & John Dinkeloo, 1971), Indianapolis, Indiana, 2018. © Phil Donohue.
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Tags: Chicago, MAS Context, Near North Side, Phil Donohue, Phil Donohue: The Future Was Then, photography, Society of Architectural Historians
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