Diffusion 2015 - Looking for America

The very idea of America has come to be seen from abroad as a mythic power, symbolising deeply held aspirations, desires and fears.

However, in a post-9/11 world the vaunted American dream, the belief that life will get better, that progress is inevitable if we obey the rules and work hard, and that material prosperity is assured, has been replaced by a hard and bitter truth. Antipathy towards the United States’ political and military involvement overseas, the toxic combination of corporate abuse, educational under-achievement, societal division and injustice, with the attendant economic meltdown, has tarnished America’s national image and self-belief, perhaps irreparably.

Diffusion 2015 - Looking for America brought together a wide range of contemporary and archival photography, combined with moving image and digital media. The work presented explored subjects as diverse as American myths and utopias, urbanism, civil rights, landscape and road trips, industrial and post-industrial experience, culture and consumerism. The featured artists variously celebrated and critiqued the North American way of life, touching on America’s multifaceted identity. Seen together, the work creates a kaleidoscopic view of contemporary America, and its values, policies and effects.