A Family Affair

Ah! I love the holiday season: warm cocoa, Mariah Carey's "All I Want for Christmas is You" on the radio, wool sweaters, and seemingly endless amounts of time eating with my family.

And when thinking of family, I am reminded of  Mary Magsamen’s and Stephan Hillerbrand's fantastic exhibition Family Portrait, on view till December 29th at The Center for Photography at Woodstock.  The husband-and-wife team, better known as Hillerbrand+Magsamen, along with their daughter (Madeleine) and son (Emmett), create wildly humorous scenarios that address "family dynamics, suburban life and American consumer excess." The resulting photographs and films reference famous literary and mythological characters, while also critiquing the voyeurism of popular entertainment. 

The best part: A video titled Whole, where the artists create "new levels of interaction, communication and exploration by breaking and cutting holes into [their] actual home to make a habitrail-like environment where we go nowhere fast."

As a side note: I sorted through Artsy's database  - in a post-Christmas overeating comatose state - and found lots of other artists working around the theme of  "families." Enjoy!