Standard Metre in USA

Artists

Schuster, Michael

Texts

On Michael Schuster's "Standard Metre in USA" – Robert Fleck

Curators

Fleck, Robert

Cooperations

Michael Schuster, Standard Metre in USA – Grand Canyon, Arizona, 1992, Standard Metre in USA, museum in progress

Michael Schuster, Standard Metre in USA – Maroon Bells, Colorado, 1992, Standard Metre in USA, museum in progress

Michael Schuster, Standard Metre in USA – Stone Mountain Park, Georgia, 1992, Standard Metre in USA, museum in progress

Michael Schuster, Standard Metre in USA – Iowa State Capitol, Iowa, 1992, Standard Metre in USA, museum in progress

Michael Schuster, Standard Metre in USA – Bluegrass Horse Park, Kentucky, 1992, Standard Metre in USA, museum in progress

Michael Schuster, Standard Metre in USA – The Gateway Arch, Missouri, 1992, Standard Metre in USA, museum in progress

Michael Schuster, Standard Metre in USA – Old Man of the Mountain, New Hampshire, 1992, Standard Metre in USA, museum in progress

Michael Schuster, Standard Metre in USA – Crater Lake, Oregon, 1992, Standard Metre in USA, museum in progress

In 1992 the artist Michael Schuster (assistant: Martin Mudin) spent six months travelling through the fifty states of the USA, equipped with his photographic equipment and the Kodak colour patches control strip as a standard metre. The Kodak colour patches control strip, used in photo development for checking processing, serves as an example of a 249 cm long and 53 cm wide object which is a representation of itself down to the last detail. The route was determined by local state tourist offices. Michael Schuster set up the colour patches control strip at tourist sights and photographed it in the context of the landscape.

The results make up a series of photos which was intended to be set up as a permanent installation at the Kodak Vienna offices but which was finally rejected by the company and never realised. The project, conceived by Michael Schuster and museum in progress, was run in co-operation with Kodak Austria and Federal Curator, Robert Fleck (Ministry of Education and Art).

Documentation: the book "Michael Schuster" published by Oktogon Verlag on the occasion of two exhibitions of the artist in Vienna and Graz 1993; the large-format photo series prepared for the installation.