MAITE DE ORBE
I took this polaroid of an angel once
Photography  
London, Madrid 2017-2020


In between seeing the world with shocking clarity and a desire to hide oneself from that reality, ‘I took this polaroid of an angel once’ responds to youth’s existentialism becoming a refuge from the excess of awareness. Introducing a new perspective to the representation of teenager-hood, this project is based on a study of bodies during this transformation. Othering corpses, these are explained as biological machines at the service of the preservation of life.

Challenging anthropocentrism, rooted in the differentiation between humans and the rest of species, Homosapiens are placed in the spotlight, analyzing their maturation like scientists do with larvae in the chrysalis stage. This distance allows an estrangement proper of a self-perceptive dysmorphia that can be experienced as a consequence of the rapid physical and emotional transfigurations. Hormones raving inside heads controlling development is an inevitable process of this liminal time between infant and adult stages. Employing the mythological figure of angels to explain this in-betweenness, subjects photographed are human form but belonging to the transcendental realm. Seemingly trapped in time, they are isolated, unaware of themselves while overwhelmed with a passing time leading to disappearance.



Slide sequence for perfromative installation
Maite de Orbe ©2023