Cherrypicker | Literature  Californian Stew

Melancholic, comic, humorous: In “Ready America”, Anna Haifisch portrays a land of contrasts. Billboards meet lonely dogs, palm trees encounter comic figures. A illustrated book full of references and original juxtapositions.

Los Angeles, October 2022. Anna Haifisch stands on the balcony of Villa Aurora. She gazes down over the Sunset Boulevard toward the Santa Monica Pier. There’s the ocean, there are the palm trees. The warm colors of California. Overwhelmed by the scenery, Haifisch thinks: What a foolish idea to draw a children’s book about insects in a dark German forest while here. She abandons the plan and instead devotes herself to what lies before her: the vividly colorful America.

This balcony moment sparked the images now collected in the 48-page volume Ready America. Created during Anna Haifisch’s residency at the Villa Aurora artist residence.  

A Stew of Elegance and Fun

Illustrator and comic-strip artist Anna Haifisch portrays America in its postmodern essence. We see store signs, advertisements, and promotions. Neon signs advertise hair salons, nail studios, fast-food restaurants, and Vietnamese carryouts. Names and numbers complete the chaos of the crowded advertising landscape. On this, Anna Haifisch remarks: In Ready America, each page features two images stacked on top of each other. There’s usually no discernible connection between them. However, the images are far from randomly assembled. Often, they create quirky juxtapositions. On one page, the lower section shows a black billboard for the funeral service “Dignity Memorial,” likely located by a highway in the middle of the Californian desert, with barren mountain peaks in the background. Above this image, a red skydancer with a smiling face floats – one of those inflatable figures that stretch skyward with bursts of air, only to flop over again.

Pop and Melancholy

The vibrant colors typical of Anna Haifisch dominate this collection as well. Orange, yellow, and purple fill the pages. Other hallmarks of the illustrator repeatedly appear, especially solitary dogs. They stand absentmindedly in the street or they gaze innocently out of a window. Similarly, the palm trees and street signs regularly featured in her work seem equally lonely.

Villa Aurora itself is frequently referenced in her illustrations – as a street sign (Paseo Miramar), or in the form of books by Lion Feuchtwanger. The writer moved into what is now the Villa Aurora artist residence in 1943 with his wife Marta. Both had fled the Nazi regime, transforming their home into a significant meeting place for artists, writers, and intellectuals.

Anna Haifisch doesn’t tell a single story in Ready America but rather many. Her picture book captures the simultaneity of things – sometimes melancholic, sometimes humorous, but always inspiring, much like that balcony moment. A moment we hope is the first of many more.

November 2024