Watch Michael Garlington and Natalia Bertotti work on creating a dress for Susan Sarandon out of mostly found material and paper.
Garlington and Bertotti’s show, The Portals of Wonder, is centered around evocative black-and-white photographs presented in lavish three-dimensional frames. Many of the decorative elements and textures are extracted from the duo’s own photos, printed on cardboard or just paper. Almost all the rest comes from Recycle Town, the recycling dump near their Petaluma, California studio. In this show, one photo is framed in broken china, layered and fractured like remnants of the Mad Hatter’s tea party. Another, an alluring image representing Frida Kahlo, is framed in upholstery trimmings: velvety, silky cords that invite you to stroke them.