Chief Drive-In Sign in Topeka, Kansas

Earl Iversen, artist

born 1943

Chief Drive-In Sign in Topeka, Kansas, 1977

Where object was made: Topeka, Kansas, United States

Material/technique: gelatin silver print

Dimensions:
Image Dimensions Height/Width (Height x Width): 20.2 x 30.3 cm
Image Dimensions Height/Width (Height x Width): 7 15/16 x 11 15/16 in
Mat Dimensions (Height x Width): 14 x 19 in

Credit line: Gift of Earl Iversen

Accession number: 1978.0041

Not on display

Add to portfolio

If you wish to reproduce this image, please submit an image request

Images

Label texts

Exhibition Label:
“Conversation II: Place-Kansas,” Apr-2008, Emily Stamey
“In 1974, Kansas was the perfect place for Susan, my wife, and me to start a life and family. So we moved from Boston in a Volkswagen Microbus and a U-Haul and we set up shop. Over the years, I continually found Kansas to be an exotic and fascinating region to explore with a camera.

“I still find, many years later, as the Kansas light and air turns crisp and clear each October, I get the itch to get on the road to head west before winter arrives. And I think up some good excuse to re-visit the gorgeous prairie, its little towns, and wonderful people. You can always tell if its been a good year…there’re lots of new pick-ups around.”
Earl Iversen

“Once the proud figurehead of Topeka’s Chief Drive-in Theatre, today, the neon profile of the chief can be found in front of the Wal-Mart on 37th Street. Reflecting upon “his” changed circumstances I find myself generalizing the sign’s treatment to that of how Native Americans have been treated within our country historically. They, too, have experienced fragmentation and displacement at the hands of others and have borne witness to the exchange of parking lots and mini-malls for their once fertile grasslands.”
Ellen Raimond, Spencer Museum Photography Intern