Review: Sabina Cosic/Chicago Photography Center

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In ten color fantasy scenario photo-works, Sabina Cosic illustrates the story of Mary Mae and her brother Chaos—a tale of sibling rivalry that puts Cain and Abel to shame for its utter descent into horrifying absolute evil, which Cosic relates in texts below each image in small print. Suffice it to say that Mary Mae suffers from the worst case of nihilistic existentialist envy this side of Satan: she resents Chaos because she has no heart and he has a good one; in consequence, she tries to kill him in the most hideous ways—the ones we find described in books on contemporary child abuse. We can see it all in the photo-works, which Cosic composes in the computer out of photographs and her digital tweaking, coming up with ghoulish scenes out of a fairy-tale book that would be sure to frighten any child to death, and might do the same for some adults if they looked at them long enough. With Cosic, the bad seed has blossomed into the flower of evil. (Michael Weinstein)

Through September 2 at the Chicago Photography Center, 3301 North Lincoln

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