Maryam Hosseinzadeh

back (in time) drops  • 2011 and 2013

"Space and time, being of the same nature, may be conceived of as different physical states of the same substance or as different modes of motion..." - A. Jarry

back (in time) drops displayed large scale banner backdrops with historical photos of sites depicting different stages of Los Angeles's natural or cultivated landscape history to juxtapose them with the city as experienced from a bicycle today as a method of time-travel in tribute to the long time work of the Polaroid photographers of MacArthur Park who have created instant photos of park visitors in front of studio style backdrops since the early 1960s.

Collaborator Katie Bachler and I intended the project as  a two-fold scavenger hunt that invited CicLAvia participants to use the map to:  1) take a digital picture of one's self at each of three sites and share it via any digital method of their choice across space and time; and 2) pay for their own professional analog Polaroid portrait by one of the MacArthur Park photographers to take home as a physical keepsake of the day. The project connected cycling and photography modes of movement through space and time with physical hands-on exchange (and some $$) between two communities— people who spend time in the public park daily and those who were likely passing through as one-day tourists in their own city. Short descriptions of each of the four banners were included on the back of the map so that people could learn more about the space-time travel of the city as each site exists today, with a version in English and Spanish provided. 

Funded by a CicLAvia Mini-Grant and in collaboration with Los Angeles Public Library Photo Archive. All photos used with the permission of the Los Angeles Public Library Photo Archive and special thanks to Christina Rice. The banners only got hung by the grace of the 17 year old British earthbuilder and traceur I met at Cal Earth whose name I can’t remember and who out of the blue asked to stay with me that weekend since he discovered he was too young to qualify to stay alone at a US hostel on his way back home. The project was also reprised at CicLAvia in October 2013.