Rethinking the Family Portrait

By KERRI MACDONALD

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For most children, household rules are fairly simple. Love your family, take care of your things.

That's usually the case for Emmett Hillerbrand, too. But not always.

Consider, for instance, a short video from the series “Family Portrait” in which Emmett, 5 years old at the time, stands in the family kitchen, hurling dozens of white Ikea plates to the ground.

“He said, ‘I can't smash this,'” said Stephan Hillerbrand, his father. “‘I've been told for five years not to break plates and then you want me, in the middle of the kitchen, to break 100 of them?'”

As the video progresses, the reaction on Emmett's face exposes his changing level of comfort. By the end, his timidity is gone an d he's smashing plates like it's his job. In a way, it is.

A conversation with Mr. Hillerbrand and his wife, Mary Magsamen, feels like an exchange with one person. The artists, who have been married since 2001, envision and execute ideas collaboratively. In name, they function as one: Hillerbrand+Magsamen. In art, they meditate on little questions about daily life in Houston, where they live with Emmett, now 6, and his sister, Madeleine, 9.

Why do we have so much stuff?

What does the family couch mean?

And they take these questions one step further, spending Saturday afternoons smashing holes in their bedrooms walls; Tuesday mornings sawing that sacred couch in two. What results are projects like “House/hold,” a cinematic series of staged documentary photos that question family, culture and consumer society.

So how do you raise children in a home like this?

“It was weird,” Mr. Hillerbrand said of the birth of Madeleine. “We would hire a baby sitter to take care of her so we could go into the studio when we were living in Ohio. Then we felt terribly guilty when we were in the studio because we weren't spending time with our child. But then when we were with our daughter, we felt guilty because we weren't practicing our art.”

The couple have always been preoccupied with the notion of the everyday. So it felt natural when art began to mirror - and consume - family life.

“We realized that maybe our studio is our family - it's our house; it's our garage,” he said.

On the surface, they're a typical American family. Mr. Hillerbrand, 47, teaches digital media at the University of Houston. Ms. Magsamen, 43, is a curator for a micro-cinema in Houston, where they moved from Ohio in 2006. They live in a 1960s-era bungalow in a subdivision called Garden Oaks.

It was the move to that so-called normalcy - the jobs, the children, the house - that encouraged Hillerbrand+Magsamen to push the boundaries.

“We realized, ‘Oh we're going to Costco; all of our friends are engineers that work for Halliburton,'” Mr. Hillerbrand said.

“He's embellishing,” Ms. Magsamen interjected. “We know a lot of geologists, but I don't know that that really comes into our work.”

She continued, “But, it's a different landscape than we would have had other places.”

That view of Houston is similar to their work. While it could be construed as being critical of big-box America, it is more about asking questions than it is about pointing fingers.

The photos and videos are imbued with an unintentional kind of humor - dark, like a New Yorker cartoon brought to life. “It's not like we're making fun of ourselves, or trying to think of funny ideas,” Ms. Magsamen said. “But it's just kind of the way we work. It just comes out and it's just kind of who are; the kind of work we enjoy.”

Usually, both children are eager to participat e. Because the images and videos are staged documentary, it often takes many days to achieve the right snapshot aesthetic. The repetition can be tedious for the children. When it is, they take a break.

“Can I say my theory?” Mr. Hillerbrand asked. He looked at Ms. Magsamen and they laughed. “I have a really crazy theory.”

A hundred years ago, if he'd been a cobbler, a farmer or a blacksmith, he supposes, his children would have learned the tools of his trade. Rather than spending thousands on summer camps for their children, he and Ms. Magsamen are teaching them their trade.

When they showed the video “D.I.Y. Love Seat” in Houston in 2011, they brought their television and the battered couch â€" the first thing they'd purchased together as a couple â€" into the exhibition space, leaving nothing but a rug in their den. Madeleine's friend who stopped by for a sleepover was confused. Where was the TV?

“Madeleine looks at her, without skippi ng a beat, and says, ‘It's at their work.'” Mr. Hillerbrand said.

This fall, Hillerbrand+Magsamen have exhibitions in Florida, Connecticut and Texas.

“We're doing a show in Michigan that's almost all blankets,” Ms. Magsamen said.

“Did you see them?” Mr. Hillerbrand asked. “I'm getting all excited,” he said, laughing.

The project, “Comfort,” is a series of photos of their belongings, piled carefully into wall of stuff. The images were printed on polar fleece blankets at Walmart.

“They ship you the blanket,” Ms. Magsamen said, delightedly.

“But seriously,” Mr. Hillerbrand added, “it's really beautiful.”

Hillerbrand+Magsamen will be showing various works at the Dunedin Fine Art Center in Dunedin, Fla., Sept. 7 to Oct. 14. From Sept. 11 to Oct. 28, two videos will be on display at the Real Art Ways Video Gallery in Hartford, Conn. And from Sept. 19 to Oct. 7, some works will be on display at Kendall Galler y in Grand Rapids, Mich., where they will also be competing for the ArtPrize hosted there.

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