Long a part of our retail shopping experience, mannequins have been used as models for the latest clothing trends as well as, more recently, become a symbol to represent our more robotic ways of everyday life, especially in an age where cellphones have become extensions of our bodies. “Mannequin,” a collaborative exhibition by Clark University students Dante Diez, Simon Pinchbeck and Hoang Truongat the Harold Stevens Gallery at WCUW, combines photography, video and sculpture to examine how modern human identity is being shaped by digital technologies.
Through their immersive works, the three artists have teamed up to explore how our digital culture has influenced our behavior, perception and self-understanding of life, blurring the line between authenticity and imitation.
“When we looked across all of our individual works, we noticed a theme of imitation, artificiality, and the uncanny,” said Connecticut-based filmmaker and photographer Simon Pinchbeck, a screen studies major. “Whether it was through digital personas, or the experience of living through a phone screen, our work kept tracing back to the foundations of what it means to replicate humanity.”