Sunday, March 1, 2009

Ladies of the Mannequin (Part I)

Over a year ago "The Bay" closed in Eastgate Square. They were selling all of their fixtures, and by the end they were selling all of their fixtures for very little.

I bought three mannequin busts. No arms, no waist, no head; I think they were meant to model bras.

I decided to name them after female literary icons, so that perhaps their names could empower them, even when their "perfect" breasts seemed to degrade them. Margaret Atwood, Virginia Woolf and Sylvia Plath, my girls.

I soon realized three mannequin busts was too many for any one person to have, So I gave one away. Virginia Woolf was itching to see the world so I gave her to my good friend Sarah Bardwell. Now Virginia is in good hands, even though she has none herself. I asked Sarah to send me pictures whenever she gets around to incorporating her into a piece.

I have actually been the patron of a few of Sarah's works... haha, I will post some pictures here soon.

Next to leave the nest was Margaret Atwood. I decided to decorate her and give her to Alyson for Christmas. I cut out floral prints from magazines and nearly covered her.

Alyson was kind enough to take pictures:









That leaves Sylvia Plath. My mannequin, my friend. For almost a year she has hung on my wall in a pink training bra, but that is the case no longer. Last week I dressed her up and brought her to school for a visual literacy project, she went over very well. I need to take a photo of her for my professor, I will post it here.


Sylvia was only playing dress-up though, I have not decided on how she will look permanently, I am still waiting for inspiration.

Thanks for listening.

6 comments:

  1. Haha, amazing concept!

    And, you know Sarah Bardwell? Black hair and glasses?
    If I'm thinking of the same person, and I knew eachother in highschool in a little town called Petrolia about six years ago.

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  2. That's wonderful! I'm glad you like it. Immediately after I posted it I thought of a bunch of other songs that would have gone really well with it.

    And, you are very fortunate to have never heard of Petrolia. It's a tiny little town near Sarnia with a population of about 2,000. I lived there for about three years when I was younger, and it sort of broke me...
    If you don't mind, tell Sarah that Warren from Petrolia says hello, or something to that effect. :)

    http://hypem.com/search/grizzly%20bear%20don%27t%20ask%20remix/1/ Listen to the first search result. So good.

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  3. I've tried my best. :)

    That's a very enjoyable 'remix'. The union of two such great musical acts count have sounded any better.

    And, it's interesting that you say that; Petrolia was actually the first place that oil was discovered in North America, hence the name. ISN'T THAT EXCITING?! It's really nothing except your typically rural Canadian hick town. Nothing to write home about.

    I'm going to return to my movie and collage, and try finish as much as I can before I need to sleep. Have a good week!

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  4. http://www.kcrw.com/media-player/mediaPlayer2.html?type=video&id=mb080227grizzly_bear

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  5. I'm glad you like it, but I can see how you'd be kind of distracted/overstimulated by both a video and lecture of that calibre in that short amount of time.

    My evening went alright, I ended up staying up with Kate on MSN until about 5 AM, and I woke up this morning feeling dramatically more ill. So it goes.

    As for collaging, I've made little progress. I laid the innitial foundation but I was sort of distracted by my movie, which was entirely Hindi with subtitles. It was actually really really good, t's called Pather Panchali and it's the firt installment in a trilogy of movies directed by Satyajit Ray, starting in 1955, I believe. You should really check into it, beautiful images.

    I'm going to go read or collage or do something pseudo-productive and make myself feel better about staying home all day doing essentially nothing. Urghh.

    Talk to you later, enjoy the rest of your day.

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  6. I've been on a huge Grizzly Bear kick. There's something about it that really speaks to me. I really like Ed Droste too; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1kUFBfV8CjM
    This interview is amazing and hilarious for many reasons.

    I spent a good deal of last night trying to transcribe 'Little Brother' into guitar tabs last night. I was listening to 2 second segments on repeat for several minutes, and it got to the point where it lost total subjective meaning. Eeughh not the best. However, I'm the first person to post it on the internet so I guess it was sort of worth it? I don't know.

    I saw in your post on your other blog that you take yoga! That's really great. I used to be really involved with it as well, but since my six week pre-OCAD reclusive period, I've kind of fallen off the tracks. How long have you been attending classes?

    As for tonight...I going to continue drinking tea voraciously, and finish reading a few books. I printed off some literature on transcendental meditation and water fasting for kicks, so I think I'm going to dive into that shortly. Haha, I also bought this device called a neti pot today. If you haven't heard of it, it's worth looking up. It seems really cracked out, but it's actually amazing.

    Lastly, I feel wonderfully about lemon scones! Kate tells me you're baking them? Needless to say, I'm excited.

    Have a nice evening/morning/Tuesday.

    P.S. If you like Grizzly Bear, you might really enjoy this song:
    http://hypem.com/search/atlas%20sound%20recent%20bedroom/1/

    Atlas Sound is the solo project of Bradford Cox, the band Deerhunter, who have both steadily become my favourite musical acts. Well worth checking out if you're looking for something new. :)

    Warren

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