By Peggy Sue Amison, May 10, 2025
What I appreciate about Christian Patterson’s artistic practice is his intentionality. His projects take years, sometimes even decades to complete. Like a detective, Patterson allows narratives to surface gradually, letting the evidence lead the way. His photobooks are sculptural, meticulously crafted objects in which every detail is deliberately considered. Through their physicality, he shares the visceral thrill of discovery, recreating the original moment. Using different paper stocks, archival materials, and thoughtful sequencing, these tactile travelogues immerse us in his obsessive investigations, compelling us to look more closely. Patterson challenges the notion that a photograph is merely the instantaneous click of a shutter; instead he invites us on a slow, unfolding adventure.
His latest exhibition, Gong Co. at Robert Morat Gallery through May 17, exemplifies this layered approach. Upon entering, I was struck not by a photograph, but by two handwritten monoprints framed in cardboard, shouting out: “TimE To SAvE” and “TO DAY is CAsh,” (2022) accompanied by a two dollar bill pinned to the wall. Later, I found myself mesmerised by a beautifully rendered photograph of a disused pickle jar surrounded by sticky flypaper and speckled with dead flies (“Shelf Still Life Pickle Jar,” 2016). In another moment, I leaned in close to decipher faded newspaper advertisements covering a shop window (“Newspaper Window”, 2016) searching for further clues. The entire exhibition presents a beautifully executed elegy for the now-vanished small town grocery store Gong Co., once located in Marigold, Mississippi, and photographed by Patterson over a 20 year period, between 2003 and 2023.
The series of exquisitely produced photographs fills the gallery, creating a portrait of dishevelment. Interspersed throughout the space is actual store ephemera, scattered like musical notes in a score, creating a melody of complementary colors. A burned-out pot hangs beside a chiaroscuro still life of bottles (“Bottles and Shadows” 2017) A worn, pale green plastic washing machine basket compliments a photographic still life of an upturned floral trash can (‘Wastebasket”, 2017) which surprises with its unexpected beauty. These and other stunning still lifes document the strange, transitional space of Gong Co.
As someone who came of age in the 1970’s, these objects -both physical and photographed - triggered vivid personal memories for me (I think, as a child, I even gave my father the hand-shaped green bottle of Mennen Skin Bracer as a gift!). Later, I wondered how a younger viewer might interpret these artifacts? Would they recognise them as relics, or dismiss them as humorous tchotchkes? Though Patterson documents the physical space in great detail, the proprietor of this 1970’s time capsule remains unseen. Their presence is only implied through the recurring appearance of a pair of greasy, disembodied hands: in one image, holding a handwritten sign that reads, “Out of Business”; in another, displaying a worn wristwatch (“Wristwatch” 2019); reminders that we are viewing a portrait of time passing.
While the images may initially appear documentary, a deeper tone soon emerges. Gong Co. is not a nostalgic tribute, nor is it merely an observation of surfaces. It is a portrait of a vanishing place, and equally, a meditation on time, endings, and on the uncertain transition that follows. The Warhol quote invoked in the exhibition materials echoes with unsettling clarity: “Someday, all department stores will become museums, and all museums will become department stores.”
Completed during the Covid-19 pandemic, a moment that irrevocably altered global consciousness, Gong Co. resonates far beyond its specific setting. Rather than simply documenting the demise of an American store, Patterson has created a deeply existential allegory, a time capsule capturing a moment of rupture in our collective understanding of permanence, time, and change.
Peggy Sue Amison is a Berlin-based curator and writer and the Artistic Director of East Wing @eastwingphoto in Doha. She was a curator of LagosPhoto, 2023 in Nigeria and the Republic of Benin.
CHRISTIAN PATTERSON "Grocery List" 2019.
CHRISTIAN PATTERSON "Newspaper Window" 2016.
CHRISTIAN PATTERSON "Today is Cash", 2017.
CHRISTIAN PATTERSON "Wastebasket", 2017.
INSTALLATION VIEW "CHRISTIAN PATTERSON "Gong Co." ROBERT MORAT GALLERY, BERLIN.