Candy / A Good and Spacious Land

A Good and Spacious Land is part of a two-volume, collaborative publication, including Goldberg’s Candy (2017), developing Wylie’s research practice, visually representing conflict. Utilizing a combination of conceptual and typological approaches, his work proposes the role of photography within the contexts of preservation, memory and history. Each publication visually contrasts themes of promise and betrayal, within American society and mythology. On one level A Good and Spacious Land is a research project into urban planning, contemporary road construction, and the nature to which the US highway system operates as a defence system. In 1990, President George Bush, renamed the Interstate System to "The Dwight D. Eisenhower System of Interstate and Defence Highways." (FHA, 2017). Historically Connecticut was a leading gun manufacturing base, so much so, the State was referred to as the Arsenal of Democracy. Colt 45, Remington, Winchester, Smith & Wesson, originated in Connecticut. Historically these guns where dubbed: “the guns that won the West”, the American west, but also its global empire. Through further research Wylie learned that these gun factories where often located close to the highway system, which became his central theme of research. On second reading this research also tackles the origins and concepts of American identity, the mythologies of territorial expansion and “chosen people” ideologies within American history. Through photographing the construction of the highway system, Wylie laces into the work visual metaphors. The title itself refers to the Old Testament promise made to Moses and ties to New Haven’s legacy of Puritan exceptionalism and expansion. Through researching the history of the American highway system, and recording the process of construction of the i95 interchange, Wylie has significantly expanded his ongoing research into Architecture, Conflict and history, while simultaneously incorporating a new metaphorical reading into his work.