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Air Power
Air Power
Image may be subject to copyright restricitons. Non-commercial use only.

Air Power

Artist (American, 1939 – 2023)
Date1979, printed 1982
Mediumgelatin silver print with airbrushed color and stamps in green and red ink
Dimensionsimage: 23.4 × 35.3 cm (9 3/16 × 13 7/8 in.)
sheet: 27.9 × 35.3 cm (11 × 13 7/8 in.)
ClassificationsPhotographs
Credit LineChapin Riley Fund at the Greater Worcester Community Foundation
Object number2017.2
Label TextFichter’s multimedia collages serve as examples of experimental photography that blur the boundaries between photography, printmaking, and painting. As he noted, “I wanted to break free of commercial restrictions and think outside of the yellow [Kodak film] box.” In Air Power, a photograph of small-town America is altered with airbrushed embellishments and three rubber stamps. By visually accentuating the billboard, the dumpster, and the car, Fichter reinforces the theme of human impact on the natural environment, a concern which appears frequently in his work. Further, by adding pink airbrushing to the billboard, he inserts a reference to female genitalia—the wings of the plane becoming a woman’s spread-open legs. Here, “air power” suggests a woman’s sexual command. Moreover, the billboard’s tagline “A Great Way of Life” takes on a sexual subtext.
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