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VIDEO ARTWORK

Overwhelmed by the world and the enormity of their lives—crazy politics, Hurricane Harvey, school shootings, parents’ declining health and death, and children growing older and leaving home—Hillerbrand+Magsamen wished for an app, tool, or device to fix things. They decided to make their own: Device to Heal a Broken Heart (2018). The Devices Project began as a live lecture performance featuring the artist duo and their two children. They showed audience members how to create and interact with fictional tools that they created from everyday household objects, such as toys, spatulas, and laundry hampers. These “homemade” devices repurposed the original intent of individual parts into tools that helped the audience cope and manage.

Bio

Hillerbrand+Magsamen are a collaborative husband-and-wife team whose work is deeply intertwined with their partnership. They explore the relationships between home, history, memory, and the mise-en-scène of daily life and consumerism. For over 25 years, they have worked together on projects spanning video, photography, installations, and interdisciplinary performances. Their methods are rooted in collaboration and experimentation, leveraging a playful yet deeply thoughtful approach to storytelling. Everyday items are repurposed and reimagined, creating surreal, thought-provoking visual narratives that oscillate between humor and poignancy. Their practice often involves a process of deconstruction and reconstruction—breaking down traditional notions of family and domesticity to explore deeper emotional and cultural truths. Their work has been presented at festivals including Ann Arbor Film Festival, Fusebox Festival (Austin, TX), CounterCurrent Festival (Houston, TX), and Diffusion Photography Festival (Wales, UK). Exhibitions include the Grand Rapids Art Museum, Everson Museum (Syracuse, NY), and Center for Photography Woodstock.