Christa Donner went down to the boondocks, fell in with some teenagers and embarked on an adventure in which the team interviewed townspeople about their feelings towards their bodies and then crafted “wearable” paper collages to symbolize our innards and organs imaginatively. As a final touch, Donner took color photographs of her collaborators decked out in their handiwork. Boys with outsized bulging eyes or in skeletal fright masks are to be expected; the surprise is the number of kids of both genders who are partial towards wearing their intestines, sometimes on their sleeves, although fanciful neural ganglia also come in for some play, with nods to the vascular system. Donner promises a “complex, surreal look at teenage body image,” but her approach is far too playful to carry that burden. What we have here is a whimsical fashion statement. (Michael Weinstein)
Through July 18 at International Museum of Surgical Science, 1524 North Lake Shore, (312)642-6502.
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