1950s Domesticity and Perfection Become Terrifying in these Amazing Collages by Chase Kahn

Chase Kahn (BFA 2015) is a photographer and designer currently pursuing dual degrees in Studio Art Photography and Communication Design from the University of North Texas. His work utilizes both digital and analog techniques formed from mixed media and found materials to produce satirical works about consumption and the domestic. His project Who Wants You to Live Forever? combines imagery from home journal magazines and mid-century advertisements to create a series that celebrates the visual style of the source material while functioning as a critique of consumerism and over-saturation.

As a student of the advertising industry, Kahn describes himself as passionate about the creative side of advertising, “yet fully aware of the insidious, manipulative nature of what is ultimately being produced.” The source of Kahn’s collages – found photographs and vintage home journal magazines – portray the ultimate in 1950s domesticity and perfection, yet his careful rearrangements spin these consumer narratives wildly out of control. By compositing and rearranging idealized family portraits and domestic scenes, his images become overwhelming and terrifying, infused with a frantic sense of household order falling apart – in his words, “the hackneyed pursuit of the American dream.”

Kahn describes the series as “a mosaic of domestic hysteria,” reflecting on our collective fixation on replicating experiences that can afford us a temporary, euphoric distraction. Who Wants You To Live Forever? ultimately functions as both a celebration of the art and style of the birth of American print advertising, as well as a satirical critique of ravenous consumerism and oversaturation that still runs rampant today.

All images © Chase Kahn

This post was contributed by photographer Acacia Johnson and her student photo blog, Onward Forward.

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