Issue link: http://papercitymagazine.uberflip.com/i/1539742
Hillerbrand+Magsamen's Model Home: Built for PaperCity, 2025, at FotoFest T his month, FotoFest showcases Texas photographic duo Hillerbrand+Magsamen's first quarter century of image- making — a little dada, a dose of surreal — in a show co-curated by executive director Steven Evans and associate curator Madi Murphy. Stephan Hillerbrand and Mary Magsamen's work intersects photography with sculpture, installation, performance, and video — mining tropes of middle-class family life via an appreciation of the absurd, all the while critiquing our current moment in consumer culture. To mark the occasion, PaperCity asked the husband- and-wife team to craft an image that speaks to their practice while winking at the magazine's focus on design and interiors. It's a tradition — artists William Wegman, The Art Guys, Jasmine Zelaya, Elaine Bradford, Susan Kae Grant, Letitia Huckaby, Robert Hodge, Karen Navarro, Sarah Fisher, and George Sellers have all contributed artwork for covers or created works for special features. Hillerbrand+Magsamen's Model Home: Built for PaperCity, 2025, is reproduced here in our Houston October issue, in a total edition of 50,000. As with much of the collaborative couple's practice, there's not an easy read. Their staged photograph depicts a dollhouse filled with foam, which spills forth from windows and door. The diminutive model is ornamented by pearly pins, Styrofoam spheres, silver sequins, and whorls of ribbons, conjuring an image both celebratory and surreal; upon second glance, it's slyly suffocating and borderline sinister. The deadpan piece of plywood it rests upon, however, removes the menace and restores the Victorian-inspired mini mansion to the realm of the ridiculous and over-the- top — something created by a DIY crafter gone mad. "Hillerbrand+Magsamen: nothing is precious, everything is game" at FotoFest, Silver Street Studios," October 8 – November 22; reception for the artists, Saturday, October 11, 2 pm; info and programming fotofest.org. Domestic Surreal The By Catherine D. Anspon an Artwork Created for PaperCity 28