Living statue
Encyclopedia
Mime artist
A mime artist is someone who uses mime as a theatrical medium or as a performance art, involving miming, or the acting out a story through body motions, without use of speech. In earlier times, in English, such a performer was referred to as a mummer...
who poses like a statue
Statue
A statue is a sculpture in the round representing a person or persons, an animal, an idea or an event, normally full-length, as opposed to a bust, and at least close to life-size, or larger...
or mannequin
Mannequin
A mannequin is an often articulated doll used by artists, tailors, dressmakers, and others especially to display or fit clothing...
, usually with realistic statue-like makeup, sometimes for hours at a time.
Living statue performers can fool passersby and a number of hidden camera
Hidden camera
A hidden camera is a still or video camera used to film people without their knowledge. The camera is "hidden" because it is either not visible to the subject being filmed, or is disguised as another object...
shows on television
Television
Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...
have used living statues to startle people. As with all performing arts, living statue performers may perform as busker
Busking
Street performance or busking is the practice of performing in public places, for gratuities, which are generally in the form of money and edibles...
s
History
The tableau vivantTableau vivant
Tableau vivant is French for "living picture." The term describes a striking group of suitably costumed actors or artist's models, carefully posed and often theatrically lit. Throughout the duration of the display, the people shown do not speak or move...
, or group of living statues, was a regular feature of medieval and Renaissance
Renaissance
The Renaissance was a cultural movement that spanned roughly the 14th to the 17th century, beginning in Italy in the Late Middle Ages and later spreading to the rest of Europe. The term is also used more loosely to refer to the historical era, but since the changes of the Renaissance were not...
festivities and pageantry, such as royal entries by rulers into cities. Typically a group enacting a scene would be mounted on an elaborate stand decorated to look like a monument, placed on the route of the procession. A living statue appeared in a scene of the 1945 French masterpiece film Les enfants du paradis (Children of Paradise
Children of Paradise
Les Enfants du Paradis, released as Children of Paradise in North America, is a 1945 French film by French director Marcel Carné, made during the German occupation of France during World War II...
), and early living statue pioneers include the London-based artists Gilbert and George
Gilbert and George
Gilbert & George are two artists who work together as a collaborative duo. Gilbert Proesch and George Passmore have become famous for their distinctive, highly formal appearance and manner and their brightly coloured graphic-style photo-based artworks.-Early life:Gilbert Proesch was...
in the 60´s. In the early years of the 20th century, the German dancer Olga Desmond
Olga Desmond
Olga Desmond was a German dancer and actress.-Biography:...
put on “Evenings of Beauty” (Schönheitsabende) in which she posed nude in imitation of classical works of art ('living pictures').
Living statue events
The World Championship of Living Statues is held annually at ArnhemArnhem
Arnhem is a city and municipality, situated in the eastern part of the Netherlands. It is the capital of the province of Gelderland and located near the river Nederrijn as well as near the St. Jansbeek, which was the source of the city's development. Arnhem has 146,095 residents as one of the...
in the Netherlands
Netherlands
The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...
. In 2011, the festival ran from 28 to 29 August with around 300 000 visitors and 300 living including (including amateurs and children).
The city of Espinho
Espinho, Portugal
Espinho is a city in Espinho Municipality in Portugal. It is a reputed beach resort and a zone of legal gambling with a casino - Casino Solverde. Its fair - Feira de Espinho, having been first organised in 1894, is well known in Portugal...
, Portugal
Portugal
Portugal , officially the Portuguese Republic is a country situated in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. Portugal is the westernmost country of Europe, and is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the West and South and by Spain to the North and East. The Atlantic archipelagos of the...
has organized a living statue contest on the Sunday nearest to the 16th of June (the municipal holiday) since 1997.
The University of Business and Social Sciences in the city of Buenos Aires
Buenos Aires
Buenos Aires is the capital and largest city of Argentina, and the second-largest metropolitan area in South America, after São Paulo. It is located on the western shore of the estuary of the Río de la Plata, on the southeastern coast of the South American continent...
, Argentina
Argentina
Argentina , officially the Argentine Republic , is the second largest country in South America by land area, after Brazil. It is constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aires...
has hosted a National Contest of Living Statues since the year 2000.
Other uses
In science fictionScience fiction
Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...
and fantasy
Fantasy
Fantasy is a genre of fiction that commonly uses magic and other supernatural phenomena as a primary element of plot, theme, or setting. Many works within the genre take place in imaginary worlds where magic is common...
the term often has the opposite meaning: humans (or other humanoid creatures such as elves
Elf
An elf is a being of Germanic mythology. The elves were originally thought of as a race of divine beings endowed with magical powers, which they use both for the benefit and the injury of mankind...
) who are immobilized by technology
Technology
Technology is the making, usage, and knowledge of tools, machines, techniques, crafts, systems or methods of organization in order to solve a problem or perform a specific function. It can also refer to the collection of such tools, machinery, and procedures. The word technology comes ;...
or magic
Magic (paranormal)
Magic is the claimed art of manipulating aspects of reality either by supernatural means or through knowledge of occult laws unknown to science. It is in contrast to science, in that science does not accept anything not subject to either direct or indirect observation, and subject to logical...
and sometimes disguised as real statues, often remaining conscious in the process.
- In Michael MoorcockMichael MoorcockMichael John Moorcock is an English writer, primarily of science fiction and fantasy, who has also published a number of literary novels....
's fantasy novelNovelA novel is a book of long narrative in literary prose. The genre has historical roots both in the fields of the medieval and early modern romance and in the tradition of the novella. The latter supplied the present generic term in the late 18th century....
The Queen of the Swords, the heroes encounter the Frozen Army that once set out to fight an evil goddessGoddessA goddess is a female deity. In some cultures goddesses are associated with Earth, motherhood, love, and the household. In other cultures, goddesses also rule over war, death, and destruction as well as healing....
but were turned into living statues instead. - In the Anne RiceAnne RiceAnne Rice is a best-selling Southern American author of metaphysical gothic fiction, Christian literature and erotica from New Orleans, Louisiana. Her books have sold nearly 100 million copies, making her one of the most widely read authors in modern history...
novel The Queen of the DamnedThe Queen of the DamnedThe Queen of the Damned is the third novel of Anne Rice's The Vampire Chronicles series. It follows Interview with the Vampire and The Vampire Lestat...
, vampire queen Akasha and her husband EnkilThose Who Must Be KeptThose Who Must Be Kept are fictional characters in Anne Rice's The Vampire Chronicles. They are portrayed as the progenitors of all vampires, and are thus regarded as the "King and Queen of the Vampires"....
turn into statues after remaining motionless for centuries. - The 2005 movie House of WaxHouse of Wax (2005 film)House of Wax is a 2005 horror film directed by Jaume Collet-Serra. It shares the name of a 1953 horror film, which was a remake of the 1933 film Mystery of the Wax Museum. It was released in theaters on May 6, 2005 to negative reviews, but a financial success...
, which depicts a town full of ultra-realistic wax statues who are, in fact, real living people encased in wax. - Under writer Stephen Moffatt, UK television series Doctor WhoDoctor WhoDoctor Who is a British science fiction television programme produced by the BBC. The programme depicts the adventures of a time-travelling humanoid alien known as the Doctor who explores the universe in a sentient time machine called the TARDIS that flies through time and space, whose exterior...
utilized the concept of living statues to create the terrifying race of villain aliens, the Weeping AngelsWeeping AngelsThe Weeping Angels are a fictional ancient race of aliens from the Doctor Who television series, featured in the Tenth Doctor episode "Blink", and the Eleventh Doctor episodes "The Time of Angels", "Flesh and Stone" and in a cameo appearance in Series 6's "The God Complex"...
.
External links
- How to Be a Living Statue
- Busker Alley living statues videos!