Kathleen’s haunting exploration of the world of mannequins includes meticulously hand-coloured (in Photoshop) images captured over a period of years with toy, 35mm film and cheap digital cameras.

“Dumb-founded explores the fate of clothing mannequins after they’ve expired their fashion used-by dates. Some are overhauled or snapped up by collectors. Others are demoted to junk stores or displays in small-town museums. And the utterly wretched are discarded as a jumble of limbs. Whatever happens, their role is revised — instead of telling stories about fashion, they act out new scenarios, ones with entirely new meanings. Even though this series is documentary, my camera is overtly subjective, and the result is a theme of femininity … tragic, dissatisfied, exaggerated and totally fake.”

All images were printed on Canson Infinity Rag Photographique with the latest UltraChrome HDR inks, a combination that sets a new benchmark for colour inkjet prints on rag.

Dumb-founded opens on Thursday 23 April at 6pm at the Huw Davies Gallery, Manuka Arts Centre and continues to Sunday 10 May. A talk by the artist will be held at the gallery on Sunday 10 May at 2pm.

Click here to visit Kathleen’s site.