Postcards from Disneyland

Postcards from Disneyland (2015) is a collaboration between Kate Durbin and artist Rollin Leonard, commissioned by SF MOMA’s Open Space.

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Kate grew up in Orange County, under the shadow of the Matterhorn. Disneyland always felt like home to her, but also a place she longs for even when inside it. As a child she had fantasies of getting off of the boat on the Pirates of the Caribbean ride and climbing atop the pile of pirate jewels, of joining the dolls on It’s a Small World, of sleeping inside a turret in Sleeping Beauty’s Castle. But there are rules in Disneyland. It’s consumer-capitalist ethos ensures that the customer is never fully satisfied; that the park, itself an endless a series of facades like the infinity mirrors in the Haunted Mansion, can never truly be arrived at.

All the way from Portland, Maine, Rollin lugged a suitcase full of gear to Los Angeles. In studio, Kate and Rollin created characters based on their own cryptic Disney fantasies, and then Rollin hid his photo gear in his pants in order to smuggle it past park security.

In the park, we projected our figures directly into the environment during normal park hours. None of the projections are photoshopped. Just as ghosts are usually glimpsed at the periphery of perception, most park guests and Disney cast members did not notice the projections while we were working. They remained hidden in plain sight.

We see this work as a haunting. The sign at the entrance to the park assures you are entering the world of yesterday and tomorrow, but never the world of today. In Main Street, a lamp forever burns in Walt’s apartment above the fire station, where his ghost is supposed to reside. Regularly, people visit the park to furtively spread their loved ones ashes after they die. On the rides, animatronics make the same gestures over and over as the years pass, stuck in an eternal loop. Disneyland is a home for ghosts.

-Rollin Leonard and Kate Durbin