Michael Weinstein

The star of Chicago's winter photography season is the mannequin, deployed to project the artist's socially conditioned personal fantasies into scenarios resembling frames in a dream. Desiree Holman's conceit is to declare herself the wife and mother of three mannequins and then take the family on outings into the real world where she shoots herself in color performing the duties of her role, often in the company of ordinary flesh-and-blood people. The result is postmodern dada where we cannot help but laugh at the absurdity of an apparently normal woman ministering to dummies as though her everyday life depended on the successful completion of such humble pursuits as going to the zoo. At the zoo, Holman clutches the arm of her husband surrogate as her daughter surrogate leans over a railing to glimpse an unseen animal, and the artist looks into the camera as if she had been startled by an intruder on her "bucolic existence."

Desiree Holman shows at Lisa Boyle Gallery, 1821 West Hubbard, (773)655-5475, through January 20. (2007-01-02)

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