PAULA MAHONEY

In Mahoney’s series Killing Everyone I Know she uses family and friends as models and stages crime scenes with the operatic violence of an Argento film in a single image. The stage is set dramatically in blues and greens, with blood oozing from the victims. However, there are no knives cutting or guns firing, but rather the provocative use of parody.
The representation of the aftermath of the violent act is frozen, and the scene can be contemplated visually at a distance, purified of the disorder that was its promise, the source of its appeal. Mahoney’s work draws us into multiple narratives of murder and crime scenes, asking us to consider the way in which murder is represented in visual media and in our imagination.