Norma I. Quintana, American
Typewriter, 2017
This image depicts a remnant of artist Norma I. Quintana’s burned typewriter in the aftermath of the wildfire that destroyed her Napa home. The deadly fires, making idyllic wine country into hell on earth, left dozens of artists throughout the region without their studios, materials, or archives. As a consequence, many artists were forced to adopt new processes and mediums; in digging for her memories, Quintana had to shoot digitally and in color for the first time. The content itself of the photo is a counterpart to this forced adjustment to a newer and more accessible technology—if not of less dimension; the antiquated typewriter bears no hope of itself producing ever again. Quintana’s response is one of many adaptations of medium as well as repurposings of destroyed property and the ashes as evidence of disaster. Label by Hannah London