“Little boxes on the hillside,
little boxes made of ticky tacky,
little boxes on the hillside,
little boxes all the same”
—Malvina ReynoldsReynolds’ song “Little Boxes” took inspiration from Daly City, California’s community of Henry Doelger’s stock houses originally built to house GI’s and their booming families after WWII. Growing up in Daly, Brouws returned to his hometown to find the once uniform neighborhoods awash with vibrant colors of all kinds. These bold palettes had been chosen by recent Asian immigrants to express their individuality upon taking residence in the conventional city. This unique view of New Americana reconstructs the typology of suburbia by overturning conformity, captured under the astute gaze of Brouws. Crediting artists such as Ed Ruscha for his typologies, and the likes of New Topographical photographers Robert Adams and Lewis Baltz, Brouws continues to investigate the constructed American landscape.
