The Artificial Body in Fashion and Art: Marionettes, Models, and Mannequins

Description

Artificial bodies constructed in human likeness, from uncanny automatons to mechanical dolls, have long played a complex and subtle role in human identity and culture. This book takes a range of these bodies, from antiquity to the present day, to explore how we seek out echoes, caricatures and replications of ourselves in order to make sense of the complex world in which we live. Packed with case studies, from the commedia del’arte to Hans Bellmer, and the work of André Courrèges to the 1980s supermodel, this volume explores the divide between the “real” and the constructed. Arguing that the body “other” plays a crucial role in the formation of the self physically and psychologically, leading scholar Adam Geczy contends that the “natural” body has been replaced by a series of imaginary archetypes in our post-modern world, central to which is the figure of the doll. The Artificial Body in Fashion and Art provides a much-needed synthesis of constructed bodies across time and place, drawing on fashion theory, theatre studies and material culture, to explore what the body means in the realms of identity, gender, performance and art. Cover page Halftitle page Praise page Title page Copyright page Dedication TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS INTRODUCTION 1 CLOTHES OF CARNIVAL: PERSONAL PUPPETEERING AND ROLE PLAY Precursors: Atellan farce Pulchinello and Punch Commedia clowns and the mind-body problem Representations of the commedia dell’arte in art 2 A SOUL IN CONTROL: THE ART OF THE AUTOMATON Early automata Pygmalion and Pygmalionism Vaucanson The art of automata The chess-playing Turk The end of a fantasy, the beginning of a contrivance 3 DARK DOUBLES: DOLLS AS A SOLUTION TO THE FALLIBLE BODY A world with no puppet master: Jean Paul Kleist’s Über das Marionettentheatre and E. T A. Hoffmann’s Sandman Maeterlinck, Craig and the Über- marionette Rilke and the puppet 4 BETWEEN TORTURE AND TRANSCENDENCE: THE DOLL IN ART Bellmer: The terror of art Cindy Sherman and the evaporated self The vulnerability of fake fl esh: The hyperrealist dolls of Jinks, Mueck and Piccinini 5 A MODEL SUBJECT: THE WINDOW DUMMY, THE FASHION DOLL AND THE DOUBLE1 Fashion dolls The birth of the mannequin Early modern modeling The doll standard and the modern body Barbie, beauty, queer 6 EXTREME HELLENE: SPORT, SUPERHEROES AND THE MODERN ÜBERMENSCH From the “normal” body to the sport body Male doll culture and superheroes Pumping iron and building a body (a)part Hypermasculine queer The anatomic shell and death: Bodybuilding and AIDS 7 GENETICALLY BAROQUE BEINGS: CYBERGENDER, TRANSEXUALITY AND NATRIFICIALITY Plastic surgery Performing monstrosities: Orlan Porn, sex, dolls and the natrifi cial No need for life: RealDolls are here Living dolls The incorporated doll and the internalized fetish 8 FUTURE POSTSCRIPT: SHELLS AND GHOSTS, BODIES AND SOULS CONCLUSION: BETWEEN BEAUTY AND TERROR NOTES BIBLIOGRAPHY INDEX