Category Archives: Silent Figures

Unusual use of silent figures – a garage in Elsworth, Cambridgeshire; photos November 2015        

Previous posts have focused mainly on the use of mannequins in shop displays and to a lesser extent as aids for artists. They also have role in museum and heritage displays. Since the opening of the Jorvik Viking Centre in … Continue reading →

A recent family visit to Camden reminded me reminded me what a rich crowd of silent figures inhabit the shops the High Street and the Markets. These are not just mannequins, but also figures rising over the shops in the … Continue reading →

Number 20 Piccadilly: ‘J C Cording & Co Traditional British clothing for gentlemen since 1839’. A smooth, faceless mannequin hiding behind a veneer of good taste.

While in Cambridge on Saturday for Trinity Street Live, (see post 12th July) I came across a few more silent partners.

‘TRINITY STREET LIVE Saturday 11 July, 10am-4pm’ Retailers in Cambridge’s historic Trinity Street are celebrating Independents’ Week by hosting a unique “live window” event for shoppers on 11 July.’           ‘This innovative event will see Trinity … Continue reading →

Photo: Hull, June 2015

Photo: Clamp Optician, Cambridge, April 2014 A whole new take on eying up someone’s legs.

Previous posts under ‘Silent Figures’ have raised gender stereotyping issues arising from how mannequins portray women.  These figures not only reinforce idea that a woman’s place in in the kitchen; the flattened semi transparent figures present women as shallow. Photos: … Continue reading →

This figure sits outside the Real Cornish Pasty Co watching the Market Square in Cambridge.  Neither pasties nor pirates have much to do with Cambridge.  As a silent figure it belongs alongside the more familiar shop mannequin and is close … Continue reading →

The post on 14th December 2014 noted the preponderance of female mannequins in shop windows.  They invariably project an idealised view of the female figure.  There is no discrimination here: men are treated the same, no beer guts, but a … Continue reading →

When I saw examples of Hans Bellmer’s Poupee in the ‘Silent Partners’ exhibition (post 13 November 2014) they triggered a recollection of something I had seen in London some years ago. After digging through memories and diaries I came up … Continue reading →

I revisited the ‘Silent Partners’ exhibition at the Fitzwilliam Museum of Friday to make some further revisions to my post of 13th November 2014.  While there I bought a copy of The Erotic Doll: A Modern Fetish by Marquard Smith … Continue reading →

What’s being protected here?  Mannequin fabric, mannequin modesty, public sensibilities? Photo: Gt St Mary’s Passage, Cambridge, December 2014