Muddy Waters | Christto & Andrew

Christto & Andrew have made their mark with images of a surreal nature, between dream and social criticism, on a borderline with the oneiric, dominated by bright and brilliant shades. Their images, always perfect, are the fruit of a unique creation, of a lively intelligence, capable of planning and realising an elaborate and captivating story for every photograph, just as in every photogram for a film: portraits that are a meeting point between pure advertising and pop art. Christto & Andrew’s style is recognisable at a fleeting glance. Irony, glamour and iconography are blended in works often considered transgressive due to the subtle balance between paradox and reality.

Christto & Andrew’s ‘scene’ is the private dimension, the models in their series evoke an estranged dimension which creates a perturbing absence; a quantity of mute questions crowd the spectator’s mind, their subjects refer directly to media stereotypes of excesses: glamour poses, great attention paid to ‘accessories’, glances and atmospheres often inspired by a cinematographic imagination in which the protagonists of their creations are made to move. The works are striking for the strong colours, they arouse our curiosity with the choice of subjects, sometimes raise questions about the apparent neutrality of situations in which the two photographers do no other than show their surreal point of view, coloured and ironic… it is down to the spectator to decide whether or not to enter this world. The subjects chosen by Christto & Andrew represent fictional characters who appear to be ‘dressed up’ with clothes and accessories that give the models a surreal aspect, with exaggerated colours and ambiguous mises-en-scène that amplify the estranging effect. Heirs to a conceptual vision and a research increasingly aimed at going thoroughly into the communicative component, Christto & Andrew’s image is by now acquired as a premise with regard to ambiguity in which a general tendency towards narration stands out, but also to function, and above all an increasingly evident detachment from the everyday which is increasingly distanced from any pretext of assimilating it to a “mirror of reality”.

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An excerpt of the text by Francesca Alfano Miglietti, written on the occasion of the show Muddy Waters, NonostanteMarras, Milan 2016

The text is part of the limited edition publication, Muddy Waters, produced by Metronom in 2016.
The publication also features the interview to the artists by Chiara Bardelli Nonino and Alessia Glaviano.

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Cover image: Christto & Andrew, The Advent of Absolute Knowledge, 2014
Lambda Print on photographic paper, wooden frame, plexiglass, 102 x 87 cm