Bodyless beauties, Natick, MA, (c) DE Wolf 2015.

Manikins or mannequins are our alter egos. They stand mute in our temples of commerce, utter slaves of fashion. Only in a classic and poignant episode of the Twilight Zone do they shed tears or try to love. Still I have been troubled by their dismemberment in recent years. They appear now in various states of dehumanization, faceless, headless, armless, or even as mere torsos like some grotesque lab specimen kept alive to further reproduction in Frank Herbert’s Hellstrom’s Hive. Perhaps it is all an allegory for the helplessness and despair of our times.

I found the two bodyless beauties of Figure 1 during my Sunday walk at the mall and was struck by their ambiquity. Photographed in this way, you are not quite certain at first whether these are real people. Maybe the lips of the lady on the left are a give-away.  They otherwise seem like two young women caught up in lace and costume jewellery.