The Mannequin Project

ArtSynergies presents: Fusion at The Art Complex Museum at Duxbury: November 10, 2018—February 17, 2019

Wed, August 15, 2018

ArtSynergies www.artsynergies.com signed a contract in 2016 to present an exhibition at The Duxbury Art Complex Museum—three years to work on an interpretation of the theme Fusion: the merging of different elements into a union.

Experimenting with multiple exposures, in 2017, Wonderland: a triptych was included in Body Politic at Bromfield Gallery. In 2018, Richard McCabe included Serenella in the 24th Annual Juried Members’ Exhibition at the Griffin Museum of Photography.

One day while dropping off work at Cotuit Center for the Arts, I saw a mannequin in storage and asked if I might borrow it. Michelle Law helped me load her into the backseat of my car. At home, I propped her up with a broom handle, set up some studio lights and took a gazillion photos for The Mannequin Project.

Artist’s Statement: Mannequins are inanimate objects with an uncanny sense of aliveness. Cast from life or not, a mannequin is an idealized human figure. Making mannequins more (or less) human-like, leaves us with feelings of ambiguity. As substitutes for human beings, they become icons of art.

My process: To reflect my sensibilities and understanding of the history of photography, I reprocess film camera and analogue darkroom techniques with an iPhone camera multiple exposure app. Although exposures are random, I can predict specific overlapping results and make only small alterations in the computer. From different points of view, layers of space-related information superimpose as one print. Choosing to print in black and white further distances the subject from reality by making the images timeless and the shapes and textures more compelling.

I cut many prints into strips and rejoin them as one-off collages.  The strips are adhered to 16"x16" birch panels and are resin coated. A gallery talk, Using Epoxy Resin is scheduled on December 15, 2018, 2:00PM. ArtResin™ is a two-part compound that hardens to a clear glossy finish. It can be used to create a durable coating over various substrates. My demonstration will focus on its use as a finish for fine art photographs and mixed media collage.

Some panels are joined to make larger presentations: The Mannequin Project: diptych and The Mannequin Project: polytypch.

A different interpretation of Fusion is a stereoscopic 3D photograph— anaglyph is another name for color filtered 3D images. Red/cyan is the most popular. Two images that make up the stero view are filtered by these colors so that only one of the two images can be seen by each eye to create the 3D viewing effect. Anaglyph images can be viewed on screen or printed with any color printer. The red/cyan glasses are inexpensive.