Marble statues can be impressively lifelike, but the 100-year-old statue “Pauline” has actually come to life at the Williamson Art Gallery & Museum.
Using projection mapping, the nude statue opened her eyes “to return her visitors’ gaze” while sound and narration gave her mouth a voice. What did she choose to say? From her own perspective, the statue spoke on a rarely broached subject in museums: our obsession with the human figure.
The installation explores the relationship we hold with sculpture from the perspective of the statue. On some levels it is a very well told joke, but on others it is an incredible question to ask of an eternity of gallery goers – a question rarely put to the gallery going public:
Why are we so obsessed with the human form that we’ve become paradoxically indifferent to it?
The piece, titled “Starkers,” was created by Davy and Kristin McGuire and commissioned by Culture 24 for Museums at Night 2015. Pauline’s monologue was written by Richard Hurford.
(via prostheticknowledge)