Trittico Mannequins

A triptych in spray and acrylic — exhibited in Düsseldorf alongside Giorgio De Chirico, and at Corso Como 5.

Trittico Mannequins is a triptych by artist Neve, spray and acrylic on wood, 260 × 380 cm, created in 2011 for ABC Manichini and exhibited in Düsseldorf and at Corso Como 5, Milan.

"Trittico Mannequins" is a three-panel work in spray and acrylic on wood, 260×380 cm in total, created as a live painting for ABC Manichini. The triptych was exhibited in Düsseldorf alongside works by Giorgio De Chirico, and at Corso Como 5 in Milan. Each of the three panels presents a different female figure — different in appearance, in palette, in cultural register — set against grounds that shift radically in tone and character. Together, the three women are not three separate portraits but three facets of a single archetype: the mannequin as avatar, the ideal of beauty as performance, the figure of femininity as it is constructed by fashion, image, and commerce. Panel 1 (black and white, arabesques): A woman with a sharp black bob, mouth open in a cry or a song, clothed in a black outfit that seems to dissolve into liquid at the edges — dripping, flowing, uncontained. The ground is light, almost white, traversed by calligraphic black arabesques. The figure is presented at the boundary between control and abandon, the mannequin pose broken open into expression. Panel 2 (dark ground, white figure): A woman with white or platinum-blonde upswept hair, her skin painted white or grey, rendered against a deep atmospheric dark ground. A gold ornamental fleur-de-lis or baroque motif appears at the left edge. The figure is cooler, more icon-like — the fashion photograph reduced to its essential gesture, the colour drained toward something otherworldly. Panel 3 (warm ground, Japanese text): A young Asian woman looking forward with directness and calm. Pink fur earmuffs. A purple and leopard-print scarf. Oval dots of white paint mark her face — face-painting, carnival, or fashion editorial. The entire background is filled with large calligraphic kanji or Japanese script, warm cream against wood tone. Of the three panels, this is the most layered in cultural register: East and West, street style and high fashion, image and text. The triptych takes the raw material of the mannequin industry — the idealised female form as commercial object — and returns to it something it normally lacks: individuality, expression, cultural specificity, the messiness of the real. The three women are archetypes who exceed their archetype.