The idea of statues, inanimate figures, coming to life dates back at least to Pygmalion and his ideal ivory woman brought alive by Aphrodite. It has been the subject of many interpretations from Pinocchio to Chuckie and The Winter’s Tale and Night at the Museum. The childhood game of ‘Statues’ does the trick in reverse. Do these figures have an urge to be animated and push the mooching elderly couple into to water? Do they come alive at night and frolic sensuously in the pool? That might be worth watching. Henry Moore’s figures would not have quite the same erotic charge.
Photo: Musee La Piscine, Roubaix, March 2012