In what would be an otherwise lonely portrait of an aging drifter,
Kilgallen inserts a female companion whose hand rests gently on
the man's shoulder. Kilgallen's woman is a drifter too, evidenced
by the stitched tear in her sleeve and the missing button on her
blouse. The smiling, cartoonish profile of the woman is a foil to
the man's contemplative expression. In another image of a couple,
Kilgallen's female figure peeks out from behind a man sitting in
a boxcar. Her legs nestled next to his, she smiles at the viewer
from behind his arm while he looks past the camera off into the
distance.
In a series of untitled images that are alternately humorous and
poignant, Margaret Kilgallen inserts women, children, and small
birds into photographs taken at train yards and along railroad tracks.
Painted directly on the surface of the photograph in black and white,
Kilgallen's figures seem to walk
between the tracks, hitch rides, and pose for the camera. At
times it's difficult to tell where the artist has altered the image,
such as the seamless insertion of the slogan "WEED" onto a man's
cap. While painting on a photograph is usually immediately jarring,
Kilgallen's alterations are never the central focus of the image.
Slight, off to the side, or behind photographic figures, Kilgallen's
painting exists on the fringe. Never dominating the original photographs
- which are in a documentary style - the artist's hand painted additions
seem to hitch a ride with the photograph itself. Just as the artist
has lingered with each image, the viewer is similarly compelled
to spend time in the train yards with the men and women that make
it their home.
At times, Kilgallen's alterations seem to complete an otherwise confusing photograph. In one such image, a woman and two children return the wave of a person riding in a train car, making sense of an otherwise unusual gesture. And yet, the presence of the family in the landscape is also somewhat disruptive, as their Depression-era style clothing and haircuts are in contrast to the modern looking fonts and cargo on the train. Kilgallen's modified photographs, with their juxtaposition of present and past styles, communicate a history of transience. While historical in their manner of dress, the artist's female figures can be seen smoking cigarettes and carrying backpacks, making them self-reliant, contemporary women on the move.
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