“The word ‘luck’ has many connotations ... good luck, bad luck, plenty of luck, no luck, out of luck. I was intrigued by this ambiguity of the word ‘luck’ and what that may mean for the community that carries the name Luck.”
—Carl Corey
Wisconsin-based artist Carl Corey’s (b.1954) oeuvre is characterised by graphic simplicity, playful humour and a keen interest in documenting ‘Man Made America’ of the Midwest. For the present work from Habitat, a series of cultural topographies, he travelled to the village of Luck in Wisconsin to photograph its town sign against an empty night landscape. ‘I wanted to visit the area on a summer night to allow for the ambient light on the sign and the distant water tower,’ Corey explains. ‘The night isolates all surroundings and allows for the best interpretation regarding my intentions with the photograph.’ For him, ‘“luck” is somewhat a metaphor for small town America’ and he uses the vivid green of the lawn contrasted with the bold red text to drive the viewer’s experience. Here, with his sleek yet offbeat style, the artist presents an ambiguous tableau, unoccupied by people, that provides no fixed or clear meaning. Corey has exhibited widely, published four photobooks and received numerous awards, notably a Guggenheim Fellowship in 2019. His work is held at the Portland Art Museum in Oregon, the Madison Museum of Contemporary Art in Wisconsin, the New York Public Library Photography Collection and the Princeton University Art Museum, among others.
