W.M. Hunt

 #somereallygoodones, #anna&bernhardblume, #kitchenfrenzy, #stagedphotography

“Kitchen Frenzy” is a five panel series on domestic chaos with the madness of flung potatoes caught mid-flight.  Anna Blume (German, 1937–2020) is a perfect domestic goddess trapped in a scene of domestic terror.  Her partner in crime is her husband Bernhard (BB German, 1937–2011) and she were pioneers of late twentieth century staged photography.  The works are drolly funny and unexpected and cinematic.  The work and likely the couple were blessed with a sense of abandon and mayhem.

The frenzy ventures into a place of fury.  There is a uncomfortable edge.  The viewer is in the middle of a maelstrom, and the stop action renders the scene still and safe.  The action feels elemental as huge particles or atoms careen in space like stills from some crazy silent movie.  For all of its cosmic implications, nonetheless, the images are about a housewife in a kitchen that seems to chosen to wreak havoc on her with potatoes.

The website for the Museum of Modern Art says that the title is a pun on prison frenzy — “the insanity that sets in when inmates are imprisoned for long periods of time—wryly plays with the daily rituals of traditional suburban life.  The absurd and humorous quality of the Blumes' work stems largely from their original staging of scenarios that, rendered with the blur of motion, slyly undermine certainties about human reason and social order.” *1

Insane.

The creation of the work is completely collaborative and higly disciplined in its production values.

*1 https://www.moma.org/collection/works/47001

©2022

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