Hat Mannequin and Bonnet c. 1937

Howard Weld's "Hat Mannequin and Bonnet" offers a unique perspective on the relationship between fashion, identity, and representation. The image is rendered in simple lines, flat colour, and graphic shapes. I can imagine Weld carefully inking these lines. The controlled execution gives a strange sense of poise, as though the mannequin is carefully posing, offering herself up for inspection. This piece reminds me of the visual language used by fashion illustrators and commercial artists to sell an aspirational lifestyle. But there is something deeply unsettling about the blank stare, and the stark isolation of this form. It is an uncanny, unsettling image. Ultimately, this image sits within a long lineage of artists exploring tensions between surface and depth, visibility and interiority, and the myriad ways in which identity is constructed, performed, and perceived.