About
the Artist
Barbara Abel
"Projecting beauty and inner
emotional spirit as well as a fragile vulnerability,
the images of these antique wax figures were captured
by Barbara in a dimly lit mannequin warehouse in downtown
Detroit. There they sat, covered with plastic for
decades, until a few years ago when they were sold
to collectors. Unlike the frozen, lifeless mannequins
of today, these European busts were posed for, many
at the turn of the century, by flesh and blood women.
Made with human hair, each strand inserted with a
hot needle, teeth made from denture material, glass
eyes, and realistic expressions, these figures poosess
a haunting, enigmatic aura. Indeed, without their
facial imperfections, caused by heat and jostling,
many of these ethereal beauties could be mistaken
for their real counterparts. Look into their faces
and let them tell their stories."
Influenced by 19th century photographer
Julia Margaret Cameron and the pre-Raphaelite painters
of the same era, Abel projects a sense of drama and
emotion in her work while exploring the feminine mystique
and her own feminist spirit.
Her work has been juried into many
national competitions by notables such as photographer
Larry Fink, Colin Westerbeck from the Art Institute
of Chicago, Elizabeth Sussman and Susan Harris, former
assistant curators of the Whitney Museum, Jeffery
Hoone, director of the publication Light
Works, and Jane Aldin from the Metropolitan
Museum of Art in New York.
