Nina Arsenault » mannequins

inspired by: The Disquieting Muses (Giorgio de Chirico, 1916)

ninaarsenault — Sat, 12 Mar 2011 22:46:45 +0000

” …a fictive space was created in the painting, modelled on illusionistic one-point perspective but deliberately subverted. In de Chirico’s paintings this established disturbingly deep city squares, bordered by receding arcades and distant brick walls; or claustrophobic interiors, with steeply rising floors. Within these spaces classical statues and, most typically, metaphysical mannequins (derived from tailors’ dummies) provided a featureless and expressionless, surrogate human presence… [The] central concern was true reality (where the past recurs), which is hidden behind the reality of appearances and visible only to the ‘clearsighted’ at enigmatic moments. In his paintings de Chirico sought to unmask reality and reveal its mysterious truth.”

inspired by: mannequin by Andre Masson (1938)

ninaarsenault — Sat, 05 Mar 2011 11:51:34 +0000

“The mannequin is a key player in the surreal game. Hourglass of figure and glamorous, she is a readymade plaything: the female tamed, acquiescent and silent; the poupee made over to the male. She is the sister of E.T.A.Hoffmann’s doll, Olympia (a key example of Freud’s uncanny ), and the very apogee of consumer art, plucked from the shop window, interchangeable with her mute commercial sisters, made first of wax and then of papier mache.”
– Margaret Plant, professor emeritus of history of art, Monash University, Melbourne

(photographs of Masson’s mannequin by Raoul Ubac)

inspired by: photography of Hans Bellmer (mid 1930s)

ninaarsenault — Wed, 02 Mar 2011 19:15:13 +0000

“The German artist Hans Bellmer’s pre-war photographs explored fantasies of the female body, interweaving themes of sadism, masochism, hermaphroditism, paedophilia and fetishism. Bellmer lovingly crafted life-sized dolls, which could be assembled from an extensive range of individual components and placed in virtually any stance by means of ball-and-socket joints… Bellmer opted for the photographic medium because it was considered to be objective, lending his perverse fantasies a high degree of realism. The Nazi designation of his work as ‘Degenerate’ did not hinder him in the years leading up to the war. His flight to Paris in 1938 brought him into closer contact with the Surrealists and encouraged him to produce even more provocative work.”

– Thimo te Duits, art historian and Curator of Twentieth-Century Design and Decorative Arts at the Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam

Inspired by: Cindy Sherman’s “Sex Pictures” (1992)

ninaarsenault — Wed, 02 Feb 2011 12:41:18 +0000

STUFF I LOVE: Barker’s beauties

ninaarsenault — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 23:36:56 +0000

OMG, the longer you stay with this video, the more intense it gets. Every frame should be watched without looking away from the screen at any moment to get the full hypnotic effect. … Nostalgia. Normativity. 70/80′s glamour. …It could all be yours, so easily, as easily as a mini skirt slips up a model’s leg innocently enough… if The Price is Right.

I’m going to be one of the “Buddies’ beauties” presenting the art at ART ATTACK

ninaarsenault — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 07:35:50 +0000

ART ATTACK
An Auction in support of Buddies
Contemporary Art. Cultural Adventures. Cool Stuff. THURSDAY NOVEMBER 26, PREVIEW 7PM, LIVE AT 8PM SHARP

Visual Art curated by Sholem Krishtalka, Stephanie Rogerson and Ryan G. Hinds
Hosted by Keith Cole with special guest stars
Auctioneer Charlene Nero

Buddies is proud to unveil its annual fundraising auction – reimagined. This year you’ll find the sexy standards you’ve come to expect along with a curated line-up of contemporary art by Toronto’s hottest artists. ArtAttack is a chance for art collectors to catch fresh new work and for cultural trailblazers to take home coveted design treasures and enchanting excursions at a steal – all while supporting Canada’s home for Queer Culture.

Buddies has put itself in the skilled hands of three curators, Sholem Krishtalka, Stephanie Rogerson and Ryan G. Hinds, who have scoured the city for hot, smart, contemporary art that reflects Buddies’ mandate to challenge assumptions and push boundaries.

This year’s show includes both new and established artists who are making exciting contributions to Toronto’s art scene such as Chris Ablett, Liss Platt, Shannon Taylor, Kevin Charlie, Tanja-Tiziana, Amy Lockhart, Chris Curreri, Robyn Cumming, Oliver Husain, Cecilia Berkovic and David Grenier.

Also on the auction block, be on the look out for design elements and inspirations from Bruce Mau, bookhou, MADE and more. Every season, independent theatre upstarts clamber for the ever-popular Indie Producer’s Package. On offer this year will also be the Indie Musician’s Package, complete with studio time, art design, and mixing and recording assistance.

Join our Master of Ceremonies Keith Cole and keep your eyes peeled for celebrity guests along with a host of familiar faces as we relaunch our marque fundraising event.
ART ATTACK: An Auction in support of Buddies

Thurs, Nov 26 – Preview 7pm, Live at 8pm – Tickets $10
Buddies In Bad Times Theatre
12 Alexander Street, Toronto ON
Box Office 416-975-8555

ArtAttack is generously sponsored by our Queer Media Partner Xtra and by The Fine Print Copy Shop, Incredible Printing, Steam Whistle Brewery, Sassafraz, NOW Magazine, Gay Guide Toronto, hogtownprintco.wordpress.com, O’Connor Gallery and Akimbo. Graphic Design by Jakcreative.com.

Cover Art “Bash Back” by Stephanie Rogerson will be up for bidding.

Mannequin for Fresh Magazine

ninaarsenault — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 04:19:23 +0000

This is the entire photo essay, called Mannequin, that Hamish Kippen and I worked on for Fresh magazine’s Sept 2007 issue. I consider myself very fortunate for having had the opportunity to work with him. After the jump is the accompanying text I wrote for the images.

The following text accompanied the images.

Mannequin
by Nina Arsenault

Since I was a child I’ve been mesmerized by the visual harmony that has been sculpted into the designer faces of life size mannequins.

The tips of their noses reflect the shape in their jutting chins. The curves of their lips are echoed in the elegant arches of their impossibly high eyebrows, as well as the swoops of their almond eyes and the gentle bulging of their cheek bones.

Moreover, their pourless plaster visages are perfectly symmetrical.

Their false eyelashes are permanently attached, and their airbrushed make-up never smudges.

These feminine works of art are supposed to represent women, but they are often too perfect to look like a real female.

Maybe that is why I love them.

Nina Arsenault is a transsexual sex worker, actress and night club personality. She has undergone nearly sixty cosmetic surgeries and procedures.

Hamish Kippen photography exhibit

ninaarsenault — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 05:50:32 +0000

Hamish Kippen was a fabulous photographer who died last year. I never got to know him personally, but I loved collaborating with him.

Hamish Kippen

I knew him as talented, inspired and easy going. He was already making a name for himself, and I was sure he would one day be shooting for glamourous fashion magazines.

In his all-too-short career Hamish Kippen not only displayed to the world his unique vision of beauty but he also developed an exceptional way of communicating with and through his subjects.

image by Kippen and Arsenault, 2007

If you knew Hamish or his work please join us in celebrating Hamish’s incredible life and work at a gallery exhibit of his spectacular photographs. The exhibition will run from October 2 to 31, 2009 (including Nuit Blanche), and will be held at The Great Hall Gallery, 1087 Queen Street West (at Dovercourt), Toronto.

A book featuring his beautiful work will be published this fall by Hamish’s family and friends and will be launched with the exhibition.

…more about ‘convulsive beauty’

ninaarsenault — Sat, 05 Sep 2009 07:52:37 +0000

Andre Breton

“Beauty is like a train that ceaselessly roars out of the Gare de Lyon and which I know will never leave, which has not left. It consists of jolts and shocks, many of which do not have much importance, but which we know are destined to produce one Shock, which does…The human heart, beautiful as a seismograph…Beauty will be CONVULSIVE or will not be at all.”

— André Breton (Nadja, the 1928 novel)

mannequins at AGO’s Surreal Things

ninaarsenault — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 02:45:39 +0000

mannqeuin by Andre Masson

photo by Man Ray

I went to see the Surreal Things exhibit at the Art Gallery of Ontario (extended until Sept 19th) yesterday. It brought me back into an old obsession in a totally new way. I’ve been captivated by the beauty of mannequins since I was about five years old. I wanted to share a section of the curatorial text below by Ghislaine Wood (also author of The Surreal Body: Fashion and Fetish) because I found it as fascinating as the art.

The Mannequin
For the Surrealists, the mannequin embodied the contradictions of modern life. It confused the boundaries between the animate and inanimate, human and machine, male and female, sexualized and sexless, and ultimately life and death. It was simultaneously a commodity, a simulacrum, an erotic object and the embodiment of the uncanny.

For Freud, the uncanniest objects were ‘waxwork figures, artifical dolls and automatons.’ In the Freudian uncanny, the mannequin also represented the suppressed primal human being emerging from the unconscious. Andre Breton saw the mannequin as the ultimate representative of what he termed ‘convulsive beauty.’