The MANnequins project is a kind of pure being without material awareness.
A mannequin is an impersonal ideal copy of a person. As if returning to the origins of creation, completely naked, they read like a litmus test with the inability to hide their thoughts, showing realistic moments of our essence. As strangers around us, they don’t cause any interest until they have what we want. But even being empty and unemotional, deprived of choice, humbly portraying us, they show the important aspects of human nature, perfectly transmitting all the meaninglessness of modern material values. They don’t need to stand out, filling a sense of emptiness and loneliness imposed by society, the endless race for utopia, creating the appearance of their significance due to the primitive elements of consumption, leading to mass uniformity and, as a result of a loss of uniqueness, turning us into copies.
History of creation.
All photos were taken on a mobile phone from 2016 to 2019, working in the central trading hous of Moscow where installations were often changed. Old and new mannequins stood on service walkways and the basement, waiting for their future fate. All photos are not staged, but a randomly captured exposition that suddenly appeared and disappeared just as quickly. And I was occasionally lucky to capture this moment.
Each time I passed by, the mannequins seemed to fascinate me, causing strange feelings and an inherent desire to capture them. Sometimes it seemed that they were specially placed in talking poses. Standing surrounded by different rubbish, they are reminiscent of modern man with its indefatigable appetite for consumption. Making you think about how values have changed and what remains after us.
So, the idea of the exhibition was born.
