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Curiosity may have killed the cat, but what lurks inside dresser drawers, behind walls and down in the basement of an eerily serene country house is a fate much more curious than death. Holly Andres’ new series of photographs, “Sparrow Lane,” currently on display at DNJ Gallery, takes its inspiration equally from Kate Spade catalogs, old Nancy Drew book covers, and the stylized portraiture of Cindy Sherman and Catherine Sullivan. Three young girls—no strangers to a hundred hairbrush strokes before bed—creep through colorful bedrooms and across richly carpeted staircases, peering into secret doors and inspecting empty bird cages.
Taken like a series of film stills, and with an art director’s exacting sense of furniture-as-mood, titles like “Outside the Forbidden Bedroom,” “Behind the Old Painting,” and “The Pink Chair” help a sense of cheerful doom to hover just off-camera. Of course, puberty is right around the corner, and it won’t be long before these clearly attractive girls are trading in their flashlights and skeleton keys for AP classes and awkward hookups. Get your mystery while you can, the Portland-based Andres seems to be telling us. And keep those bodies buried deep.
Click here for a sneak peek at Andres' work »
George Ducker is a contributing editor for Metromix Los Angeles.
