NADINE BOUGHTON

True Adventures in
Better Homes

Men’s adventure magazines of the 1950’s and early 1960’s are shocking, funny, ambiguously rich artifacts of popular culture. Seeing them as narratives from the collective psyche, in this portfolio I consider how they would speak in an environment of orderly homes with sunny patios depicted in women’s magazines of the same era.

Here is a collision of two worlds: men’s adventure magazines or “sweats” meets Better Homes and Gardens. The collages 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 bats or whales, this “other” carries not only our deepest fears but our deepest desires. We meet ourselves.