Laura Letinsky’s still life photographs are the antidote to Will Cotton’s sugary Katy Perry confections. In the light of morning, the actors are offstage, the fruit and sweets half-eaten and forgotten (but not yet rotten). This is what it feels like when the party’s over.
Letinsky’s recent work further flattens her almost cubist compositions by replacing the objects with images on paper—the photographer’s version of cubist papier collé. These sparse reproductions of half-eaten desserts and fruit are the opposite of lush spectacle, exaggerating the atmosphere of absence and emptiness. MCA Chicago opens a show of new work by Laura Letinsky early next year.
