14 Aug 2008

Mary and Stephan at Lawndale Art Center

*Whipped cream galaxies,

*Psychedelic toddler tantrums and

*Devoured peanut, butter and jelly faces…

The John M. O'Quinn Gallery at Lawndale Art Center in Houston, TX is transformed into a kaleidoscopic world of video that raises questions and ideas about perception, identity, relationships and the everyday pressures of life. 'Transcendental' refers to Kant's theory that our experience of things is about how they appear to us, but not about those things as they are in and of themselves. 'Smoothie' refers to our use of food and everyday objects and the blending of many items to make something delicious.

Magsamen + Hillerbrand experiment with video, light, sound and performance. They will present several video installations and photographs at Lawndale and among them are giant weather balloons capture video images of cookies and their children and a large suspended screen shows them creating a galaxy by spitting frosting. They make portraits of their everyday life that go beyond documentation because of innovative manipulations of time, image and material. These new interpretations of the everyday visual vocabulary such as cookies, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and their children engage the viewer with mesmerizing and visceral abstraction.