She Was Tired Of People Asking "Why Aren't You Married Yet?" So She Did This For 14 Years
Who would've thought a family of plastic mannequins could look so loving...
By Sadho Ram — 06 Mar 2014, 04:01 PM — Updated over 10 years ago
Suzanne got so tired of people asking her why she wasn't married yet, that she decided to make the ultimate statement about her supposed “spinsterhood” through an art project called “Life Once Removed”
She says that she “got tired of hearing” about her single status, saying “It’s not like I can go out and buy a family! I can’t just make it happen!’”
However, she did find a way to just 'make' the idea of marriage and family happen - with mannequins
So what started out as a “series of holiday greetings, as a satirical response to annual family photo cards”...
...turned into the “Life Once Removed” project. Seen here – photos of Suzanne with her mannequin husband and daughter.
Over the last 14 years, Suzanne has traveled 10,000 miles and has taken hundreds of photos with her mannequin husband Chauncey and daughter Mary Margaret
Suzanne says the aim of “Life Once Removed” is to “get people to reconsider their stubborn allegiance to traditional life expectations”
She says, "the project took a turn after taking them on a road trip. I saw the potential in shooting in public. Seeing me work with the mannequins is such a peculiar and funny thing to witness, that people are immediately disarmed. As soon as that happens, their mind is open and impressionable."
Adding, "Using humor, paired with shock, allows my message to penetrate, and the work can have greater impact. The aim is to get people to reconsider their stubborn allegiance to traditional life expectations."
Here’s Suzanne with her "husband" at a Valentine’s Day ball
"I’m simply trying to get people to open up their minds and quit clinging to antiquated notions of what a successful life looks like. I want people to lighten up on each other and themselves, and embrace their lives for who it has made them, with or without the Mrs., PhD. or Esq. attached."
beautifuldecay.com
Speaking about women born in current time, Suzanne says, "this is a weird time in women's history"
"Don't get me wrong, I'm pleased as punch that I was born when I was. I have more choices and opportunities than any generation of women before me, but our roles have never been more complicated by deeply ingrained mixed messages, from both previous and present generations."
"The term "perfect" is no longer used to describe what we're all striving to be. Now it is called, "fulfilled.""
theepochtimes.com
She further adds, "but for women, the path to fulfillment is not through one thing, it's through all things: Education, Career, Home, Family, Accomplishment, Enlightenment"
"If any one of those things is left out, it's often perceived that there's something wrong with your life. We are somehow never enough, just as we are."
"Even if we do have a finger in each of those pies, there is never enough time to do any of them to our satisfaction. We are constantly set up by our expectations to feel as though we are missing something."
"It was high time to call this nonsense out publicly, because this notion of insufficiency is not just about me, nor exclusively about women in regards to marriage," Suzanne says
"It's about anyone whose life doesn't look the way it "should.""
"Rarely does anyone's life turn out the way it was expected, and if by some miracle it does, what they expected isn't what they thought it was."
malaysiandigest.com
