Playing House

Playing House features collaborative husband and wife artist team Hillerbrand + Magsamen. Based in Houston, Texas, their work draws upon the Fluxus practice of incorporating humor, performance, video, and everyday objects. Working with their two children, they expand their personal family life into a contemporary art conversation about family identity and consumer culture which they call “suburban fluxus.” For Playing House, the family makes a temporary home in the gallery and presents aspects of their daily life, routines, and rituals through new and previous works including video, sculptures, photography, installation, and interactive media. 

The exhibition is grounded by a blueprint of Hillerbrand+Magsamen's home drawn onto the floor of the main gallery using playing field chalk. As time passes and audiences move through the gallery, the house disappears. A kitchen table, a loveseat, even the family's vacuum cleaner become elements of a larger conversation about home, relationship, individuality, and the struggle to stay together. Large scale photos depict mandalas made with the children's toys while a video shows the family trying to assemble a similar design out of broken dishes while the earth shakes the fragments and the family members further from the center. When everyone has their own wants, needs, and life circumstances, how can a family find stability?