True Adventures in Better Homes Mashup Collages by Nadine Boughton

Nadine Boughton

In her True Adventures in Better Homes photocollage series, Massachusetts-based artist Nadine Boughton has combined the look of vintage men’s adventure magazines with Better Homes and Gardens of the same era.

These photocollages are set against the backdrop of the McCarthy era, advertising, sexual repression, WWII and the Korean War. The cool, insular world of mid-century modern living glossed over all danger and darkness, which the heroic male fought off in every corner.

My intention is to show how the inner psyche reflects the culture at large. I am drawn to the tension of opposites: inner and outer spaces, wildness and domesticity, the sweat and the cool. With a background in psychology, I am always interested in what lies beneath appearances. The predator theme so present in the “true” adventures led me to explore “who” or “what” is breaking through. Whether the metaphor is that of bats or whales, this “other” carries not only our deepest fears but our deepest desires. We meet ourselves.

Nadine Boughton

Nadine Boughton

Nadine Boughton

Nadine Boughton

Nadine Boughton

via Flavorwire and Coilhouse

images via Flavorwire and Nadine Boughton

Rusty Blazenhoff
Rusty Blazenhoff