Thursday, February 14, 2008

Amy Stein


Amy Stein, Trash Eaters, date unknown

Amy Stein’s Domesticated pictures are like fairy tales. You know, in fairy tales it doesn’t matter if there’s really a troll under the bridge or if the house was made of gingerbread. It’s fun to think about anyway. These pictures are like that.


And I suppose it does seem unlikely that those foxes hung around while Stein set up the lights and tripod. Or that the bear was actually standing by the swimming pool, with the kid on the diving board, as Stein crept up to snap their picture. On the other hand, the kid does look petrified, so maybe there was a bear.

As far as I know, Stein isn’t telling, although she does say that each of these pictures “represents a very long and considered process.” That could mean a lot of time in front of the computer, or a lot of freaked out kids running screaming from the pool. Either way, the pictures speak of what it might be to live as an outsider, like an animal in a domesticated world.


Amy Stein, Watering Hole, date unknown

(Opens Saturday at the Paul Kopelkin Gallery in LA. And for something disturbingly real, check out Stein’s Women and Guns.)

1 comment:

Nancy Ewart said...

"Women and Guns" come from a subculture that we don't see very much in urban areas. But when I visit my brother, who lives in rural Washington State, and who is a hunter, I see a part of the world that I'm only vaguely aware of. She's certainly a mistress of disturbing juxtapositions.