Firstly thanks for taking the time to read this.
I have been invited to provide an install for this years Changing Lanes ‘Heart of the City’ project, as part of Auckland Artweek. The theme/publicity for the installations are as follows:
Locked in a window, locked in a box. Like our changing world, mannequins too are a product of humanity. They exist to engage.
But do they have the wairua of their maker? Do they mirror us?
They are toxic. And they are fragile. They too grow old and forgotten.
Today they live another day. Visible yet invisible. Awaiting our connection.
And here we are. Their reason to exist.
The subtext is to test our empathy, to project beyond oneself, by giving life to our mannequins. Using CRTs (TVs) within a shop front allows us to animate each figure, or parts thereof, beyond the static mannequin in situ.
Us and Them
A suspended dressed mannequin has everyone and anyone upside down too.
NB: Faces morph in-and-out from mannequins to humans.
They’re alive…
They walk amongst us, unseen to the naked eye.
O’Connel Street surveillance cameras have detected mannequins. Mannequins walk naturally through people, skateboard pass, stretch, and wave back.
NB: The above anime is a split-second guide only. Onscreen time-code and indexing to be added.
Let me out
These mannequins are peering over the sill, hoping that someone will notice them.
