Passe or Retiré

The legs of a disembodied figure stand in a pose suggestive of the ballet movement retiré passé in the diagram below. . The legs are in a photograph taped on the wall; meanwhile, a pair of hands enters from the margins to grasp an extra set of shoelaces across the photograph. This scene was then photographed to create this image. John Houck takes the traditional genre of still life and reinvigorates it with mischievous trickery. Houck’s subtle play with a series of digital and painted disruptions explores how we understand visual representation.