FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

SHARON LOCKHART
November 4, 1994

Friedrich Petzel Gallery is pleased to announce the move of the gallery to a ground floor space on 26 Wooster Street. The first show will be photographs by Sharon Lockhart. The opening reception is on Friday, November 4 from 6 to 8 p.m. A 16 minute film by Sharon Lockhart will be presented at the TriBeCa Film Center on Monday, November 7 at 4 p.m. A second screening is scheduled for 4.30 p.m.

Sharon Lockhart lives in Los Angeles and graduated from Art Center College of Design in Pasadena. Her first exhibition in New York consists of 3 groups of color photographs and her film, Khalil, Shaun, A Woman Under The Influence.

Auditions is a series of 5 large color photographs that show different pairs of children embracing each other on a staircase. At the time of the shooting, they were 8-11 years of age and guided by Lockhart to restage a sequence from Francois Truffaut's movie Small Change (L'Argesnt de Poche). Similar to the common practice of movie casting, the director asked them to act in front of the camera according to specific instructions, although none of them ever had an intimate encounter with one another, let alone any other of either gender . The stills capture a moment of indifference, that - for an instant of a second - suspend the stereotypes of adolescent behaviour with curiousity in emotional exchange even under technical direction.

A set of five small photographs is called Shaun. A make-up artist created lesions on Shaun's body that look like a progressing skin disease. Lockhart took pictures of different states from different angles. The shocking visual circumstances colide with Shaun's natural comfort in front of the camera.

Julia Thomas is a photographic diptych of an 11 year old girl and and older boy who is walking along a path with a stick in his hand. Framed separately, both figures are standing in a park with the back to the viewer in a posture of reflection. The protagonists seem remote, obscured by a dim lighting that evokes a rite of passage.

Filmscreening:
TriBeCa Film Center
375 Greenwich Street
7 November, 4 - 4.16 p.m.

For further information, please contact the gallery at info@petzel.com, or call (212) 680-9467.
26 Wooster St. New York, NY 10013