Greetings from McCairn

Roman de Salvo and Lizzie Zelter

Letterpress prints on vinyl salvaged from McCairn, adapted pole lamp mast, steel, hardware

8 ½ x 1 x 1 ft.

Exhibited in O Petravia at Two Rooms, San Diego, CA

September 15 - October 19, 2024

Greetings from McCairn is a collaboration between Roman de Salvo and Lizzie Zelter using recycled elements from de Salvo’s 2019 Murals of La Jolla piece, McCairn. To make McCairn, de Salvo hiked McGinty Mountain, constructed the letter “M” out of three cairns connected by two keystones, and photographed it. Reminiscent of the McDonald’s golden arches, the two-sided mural operated in Bird Rock as a drive-by billboard. After McCairn was taken down, extending the lifespan of the 18 by 25-foot vinyl became the basis de Salvo’s 2024 exhibition, O Petravia, at Two Rooms.

To contrast the large, stationary, and public experience of the billboard, de Salvo and Zelter cut up the vinyl mural and transformed it into a series of postcards: small, mobile objects intended for private exchange. Greetings from McCairn objectifies an image, recalling a National Park gift shop where a vast experience is condensed into a physical memento. The postcards provided visitors of de Salvo’s exhibition, O Petravia, with their own landscape keepsake made of weathered vinyl.