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All palaces are temporary palaces. Everything humans build is ephemeral. Pieces of the long dead past still remain here for now, If we look for it. Analog media can still be digitized. Aging buildings can be restored. Our own memories and clothes and stories are a portal to the past. That past exists constantly and concurrently to our reality until such a point that we forget it and turn away.
Nostalgia is potent when it comes to America’s mall culture of the 1980s and 90s. Economic booms and optimistic consumer attitudes were reflected in the candy colored storefronts at buzzing multi story shopping complexes. People speak fondly of a simpler time when they would meet up with friends and simply hang out at the mall.
Now, buyer demand has shifted online, and giant malls, once a cornerstone of life, have closed one by one and faded in cultural memory. For many it is hard to not look back and idealize third spaces that offered safe and cheap indoor entertainment for all ages. It is the aim of this project to archive what traces remain of that bygone era without reveling in the decay. Cynically, it can be said that malls were created simply to build capital for a few wealthy investors and then just as quickly discarded once year over year profits did not continue to climb. But on a more real human level, America’s malls will be remembered as community hubs, locations of first dates, and as so much more than just somewhere to go shopping.
