| Charles Ray | Mannequins |
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| This nightmarish quality, the
unreal realness Crimp describes, gets rephrased several
times over by the art in this show. For instance, Ray's
two mannequins, Self Portrait (1990) and Male
Mannequin (1990), appear human only to the extent
that they seem mummified. They resemble the artist in
very different ways: one is naked and looks stripped of
identity, like a typical dummy except for a
conspicuously realistic crotch and penis; the other,
fully clothed, is nearly Indistinguishable from the
real-life Ray. These zombies split the artist in two, separating his public and private appearances - he comes across as part Clark Kent, part Superstud. But the mannequins also make Ray out to be all robot, a simple fashion statement underneath which is just another dick. from
"Art of the Living Dead" by Lane Relyea, |
I
could call Ray's work anti-art, like Dada, but its
provocations need the public space and coldness of a
museum. Mannequins of parents and child stand in a row,
hand in hand, as an ideal of the American family. But all
are naked, and all are the same height. This child has
grown far too fast for comfort. What If? Charles Ray got the
idea to the mannequin works while he was searching for
the precise things for his tables at different shopping
malls. Besides reflecting on how influenced today's
"totally sick" shopping and consumption
euphoria is by the 60s drug culture, he also began to
study the mannequins of the malls. Ray procured one and
put a cast of his genitals on this otherwhise sexless
Male Mannequin (1990). The only thing true to life here
looks like a debauched dildo or a slimy alien ready to
... well, you know. One of those anonymous mannequins -
never smiling, never meeting your eyes as not to appear
diabolic - was made into Ray's Self Portrait of the same
year. |
 Charles Ray, performance |