‘Both in school and at home, I was indoctrinated with an ideal of American exceptionalism where progress is linear, and each succeeding generation will be more prosperous than the last,’ says New York-based artist Olivia Erlanger, who is featured in 2024’s Wallpaper* USA 400. ‘This didn’t match with reality. I came of age during the introduction of the personal computer, 9/11, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the advent and parasitic spread of reality TV, the global financial crisis of 2008 – events that have promoted the spiralling and fracturing of that promised progress. But dreams are boring. Delusions are more interesting and more powerful as make-believe frequently turns into reality.’
This preoccupation with the American dream runs throughout her first solo US exhibition, ‘Olivia Erlanger: If Today Were Tomorrow’, on show at the Contemporary Arts Museum Houston (CAMH). The title, taken from David Lynch’s 2006 film, Inland Empire, hints at the often surreal, occasionally nightmarish deep-dive that Erlanger takes into American society, paying particular attention to the concept of home. A juxtaposition of references, from classical to utopian and architectural, reflects the cross-disciplinary nature of the works themselves. Throughout, Erlanger drawson her studies in sculpture and literature, with nods to HG Wells and JG Ballard, as well as to Chris Kraus and Mark von Schlegell, both of whose essays are includedin the exhibition catalogue.
