Christa Maiwald

Adolescents: Photographs & Embroideries

We think about the opposite sex 90% of the time. The other 10%, we're sleeping. --Kate, age 15

Florence Lynch Gallery will present Christa Maiwald's Adolescents: Photographs and Embroideries from Saturday, March 8, through Saturday, April 12, at the gallery's new Chelsea location, 531-539 West 25th Street. An opening reception will take place March 8 from 6 to 9 p.m.

For the past three years, Maiwald has been photographing adolescents and creating embroidered portraits of them, first on small linen handkerchiefs, then on larger pieces of cotton, and most recently on pillows. The exhibition will include three large pillow installations and a selection of digital photographs.

The pillows in "Cotton Candy" and "Constellation" express adolescent mood swings. The hot pink pillows and cone-like configuration of "Cotton Candy" convey the manic joy and exuberance of adolescence, whose elation can dissolve as quickly as the spun sugar carnival treat. "Constellation" reflects the sadness, introversion and frustration of adolescence with its black pillows and stark, tortured expressions. The ribbons of conversation that connect the pillows, taken from online instant messages, represent the obsession with staying connected by phone, e-mail and instant messaging. "Yearbook" is an arrangement of sixteen pillows that resembles a page from a high school yearbook.

Maiwald's photographs, many of which have been digitally enhanced, capture the innocence, playfulness and sheer beauty of youth, even as her subjects ' clothing, attitudes and poses reflect a growing confidence in and a flaunting of their sexuality.

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