At Western Exhibitions, on monitors throughout the gallery, we’ll be showing selected “deaths” filmed by Death by Design, Co. at Gallery 400 in January 2006. Visitors to Gallery 400 had the opportunity to construct, enact, and document a custom on-screen horror movie death scene of their choosing for a small fee. Clients formulated their own on-screen “Hollywood” death from a menu of hair-raising choices: eaten by zombies in the woods; attacked by an army of giant rats; mauled by a mutant badger; or blasted by a space cowboy. Come see some of your favorite Chicago art personalities, like Alex Jovanovich and Duncan MacKenzie, “die” a most gruesome, disgusting and ultimately hilarious death! Props and f/x from the productions will inhabit the space, as will a random “corpse” or two. Visit with Death by Design, Co. masterminds at their horror conference table to perhaps plan your own on-screen death. Professionally edited DVDs of the first twelve death scenes will be available on a point-of-purchase basis at the gallery. Autographed glossies of the DxD ladies in action will be on hand as well as special appearances by other horror film personalities, like Ari Lehman, the first Jason Voorhees, from the “Friday the 13th” horror classic! A small amount of Special Edition discs contain Bonus Features including behind-the-scenes footage, a slideshow of still images, DxD bloopers and the gut-busting Death By Design, Co. company presentation.
Chicago-based artists Michelle Maynard and Teena McClelland, through Death by Design, Co., offer a safe vehicle for exploring ideas on myth, storytelling, cinematic illusion, celebrity, and our own mortality. They achieve this by incorporating the formal appeal of splattered gore with a narrative structure and providing a humorous encounter with death through extreme situations and stunning visuals.
Both artists received MFAs from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 2005. Michelle Maynard recently premiered the final cut of her feature film “Throb” at Western Exhibitions on Halloween. “Throb”, an independent sci-fi/horror/comedy, tells the story of a centuries-old entity that pulsates, mutates, infects and slimes its way into the teenagers of the city of Woodbury, USA. Teena McClelland, the female lead in “Throb”, has been included in shows at the Linda Warren Gallery, artLedge and the Van Harrison Gallery in Chicago. She received an Illinois Art Council Artist’s Fellowship Award for New Performance Forms for 2005.