Artworks

Angela Strassheim

American, b. 1969

Untitled (Lisa), 2003

Chromogenic color print

30 x 40 in. (76.2 x 101.6 cm)

Gift of Marcello Marvelli, Marcello Marvelli Gallery, New York, 2006

Angela Strassheim is a native of Bloomfield, Iowa. In a series of photographs she titled "Left Behind," she posed friends and family members in settings that seem at first benign (soothing wall color, clean carpet), then somewhat strange (where's the furniture? Where's the phone?), and finally disquieting, leaving the viewer with a sense of unease (the door is off its hinges) tempered by relief to be standing outside the picture.

Lisa, a family friend, had fallen ill on a camping trip. When she reached a hospital — where Strassheim's father was the chief administrator — she was diagnosed with Toxic Shock Syndrome. Swelling in her arms and legs became so severe that they were slashed open to relieve the pressure, but not before lack of bloodflow produced gangrene in her feet.