The Seventh Sally

Acrylic on Canvas

36 x 36 inches

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Taking its name from Stanisław Lem’s tale of imitation and perfection, The Seventh Sally presents a mannequin body as something more than a model. Lem explains how imitation carried to perfection collapses into reality: the doll that bleeds and begs for mercy is no longer an imitation but a being. This painting extends that paradox to the body itself. The headless mannequin, a recurring figure in the artist’s body series, begins as an anonymous model — a body emptied of self, belonging to everyone and no one. Yet here it edges toward the posthuman: perfected, luminous, almost sentient (the artist thinks of Sally as her friend). The work reflects on perfectionism as both aspiration and curse, where the pursuit of flawlessness threatens to surpass its maker, and the representation of a body begins to claim its own reality.

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