Mannequin a day – For the love of it.. when pregnant
Prior to starting the Lair, there was moment in time when this creative girl wasn’t creating like she used to, excluding a little girl growing inside, and that was the focus pocus. After experiencing the onset of 24/7 severe nerve pain when pregnant, a distraction plan came to light. A love of photography and styling of clothes returned, leading to Ana’s daily obsession of planning and dressing up her mannequin ‘Magenta’. Magenta was for a theatre project many years prior. Colour coded to outlandish outfits, planning sets and locations to fill her days and nights, to then posting the ‘one’ on Instagram (previous account was reset back to zero). Faux flowers, items from nature where artfully decorated her face. Down the track more graphic elements were added to the photos, sometimes delaying the ‘day’ post to the following, due to more complexity along the way.
Many people thought she was a real person due to the extra elements added to her look. Ana didn’t realise she was a magician! 😉
‘Mannequin a day’ was inspired by Noah Scalin’s blog ‘Skull-A-Day’ after reading about it in a random book.
Magenta is a vintage mannequin, adolescent in age and has a permanent seating position. An excellent model for the long lasting shoots as movement, zero! Together, we managed about 90 shoots when Ana was pregnant. Ana had to use a trolley at times to move her on location, quite entertaining watching onlookers seeing what ‘we’ were up to. Due to complications with her pregnancy, Ana couldn’t drive far or carry much, but this didn’t stop her from entering the land of creativity. Our ethereal worlds (Magenta’s and my art, if I can speak on her behalf, wink) were created with a love of colour, nature, beautiful and the ornate. Surreal concoctions were at play. Preloved stockings, bubble wrap, what ever worked was used to create the look Ana had in mind as per the photos of Magenta below.
When Mannequin-a-day started, Ana was unsure as to whether she was committing to a short duration or a continual project. So many ideas come to play, getting darker and more surreal in nature, needless to say a good and much needed release from the pain and a good addiction was created.
I wrote to Noah from ‘Skull-a-Day’ to express my thanks for being an amazing inspiration, Noah featured my art on his website ‘Make Something 365 and Get Unstuck’ which was truly wonderful.
The photography sessions are now at an end, as I’ve moved back to ‘real’ people. My 4yo girl seems to have adopted my way. From age two she was in my wardrobe taking my clothes and dressing up! I hope this written piece inspires others to create and follow their passions. Push through the boundaries, let your creativity spread like wildflowers.
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