{"id":107819,"date":"2017-02-16T18:02:05","date_gmt":"2017-02-16T23:02:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/?p=107819"},"modified":"2017-03-02T16:39:36","modified_gmt":"2017-03-02T21:39:36","slug":"real-polaroids-fake-people","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2017\/02\/16\/real-polaroids-fake-people\/","title":{"rendered":"Real Polaroids, Fake People"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_107820\" style=\"width: 1010px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/duane-hanson-4.jpeg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-107820\" class=\"wp-image-107820\" src=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/duane-hanson-4.jpeg\" width=\"1000\" height=\"1220\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/duane-hanson-4.jpeg 2133w, https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/duane-hanson-4-246x300.jpeg 246w, https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/duane-hanson-4-768x937.jpeg 768w, https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/duane-hanson-4-839x1024.jpeg 839w\" sizes=\"auto, (min-width: 62.5em) 67vw, 100vw\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-107820\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Duane Hanson, <i>Cowboy<\/i>, 1984.<\/p><\/div>\n<p>Everyone makes an occasional jaunt to the <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Uncanny_valley\" target=\"_blank\">uncanny valley<\/a>, a term connoting the profound, atavistic fear we feel in the presence of robots that look and act like people: of objects flitting around in the vicinity of personhood. Though it\u2019s been around since 1970, when it was coined by the Japanese roboticist <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Masahiro_Mori\" target=\"_blank\">Masahiro Mori<\/a>, the phrase has seen <a href=\"https:\/\/books.google.com\/ngrams\/graph?content=uncanny+valley&amp;year_start=1970&amp;year_end=2017&amp;corpus=15&amp;smoothing=3&amp;share=&amp;direct_url=t1%3B%2Cuncanny%20valley%3B%2Cc0\" target=\"_blank\">a noticeable surge in usage since 2000<\/a>\u2014the natural byproduct of humanity\u2019s deep reckoning with the unstoppable rise of our android overlords.<\/p>\n<p>The sculptor Duane\u00a0Hanson lived deep in the Uncanny Valley. He bought a lot of property there. And he didn\u2019t have to bother with robotics, either; he provoked our disturbed wonderment with earthier stuff: you know, like polyester resin, fiberglass, polychrome, oil paint. Hanson made eerily, maybe even virulently realistic sculptures of American Everymen and Everywomen. When he died, in 1996, he left behind a small army of joggers, tourists, cops, cafeteria-goers, and sunbathers, all seemingly straight out of Disney World in 1985, and daring you to call them fake. Your typical Hanson sculpture is jauntily dressed, with sagging flesh and a pouchy pallor around the eyes not unlike that of our president. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2014\/11\/12\/security-guard\/\" target=\"_blank\">As I\u2019ve written before<\/a>, his blue-collar men and women are often found in repose, loafing or catching their breath, vaguely bruised by the world around them. They\u2019re both delicate and vulgar, walking a fine line between the avuncular and the repellent\u2014tailor-made, it seems, to arouse our deepest class anxieties.\u00a0<!--more--><\/p>\n<p>He claimed that his art was \u201cnot about fooling people\u201d: \u201cIt\u2019s the human attitudes I\u2019m after\u2014fatigue, a bit of frustration, rejection. To me, there is a kind of beauty in all this.\u201d That claim is bolstered by <a href=\"http:\/\/aperture.org\/event\/duane-hanson-polaroids\/\" target=\"_blank\">an exhibition of Hanson\u2019s Polaroids<\/a>\u2014his medium of choice for testing the accuracy of his simulations, seeing if they passed the smell test, maybe tweaking the arc of an eyebrow or the pivot of a foot\u2014which opens tonight at Aperture Gallery. Seeing the photos gives you a sense of Hanson\u2019s process, and the degree to which he prized a kind of verisimilitude that went far below the surface. Look at the four angles in <em>Car Dealer<\/em>, for instance, and you can see him fine-tuning the man\u2019s ratio of desperation to blustery confidence: breathing life into a seedy stereotype. The beauty Hanson spoke of breaks through.<\/p>\n<p>The woman in <em>Sunbather<\/em>, by contrast, is more or less a memento mori: everything about her aches of death, especially the grim set of her jaw, the stretch of her red lips. The Polaroids add another layer of intrigue to Hanson\u2019s work\u2014once you realize that the people in them are sculptures, a kind of artificiality contaminates the rest of the frame. If the woman isn\u2019t real, why should the lawn chair be\u2014or the grass, for that matter? In <em>Self Portrait with Model<\/em>, where Hanson, cozy in flannel, sits across from one of his undressed sculptures, the\u00a0question of verisimilitude is finally too much to take; I can\u2019t look at the picture\u00a0for long without shrinking from it. The effect is enduring cognitive dissonance: another avalanche descends upon the uncanny valley.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_107825\" style=\"width: 1010px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/duane-hanson-18.jpeg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-107825\" class=\"wp-image-107825\" src=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/duane-hanson-18.jpeg\" width=\"1000\" height=\"1222\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/duane-hanson-18.jpeg 2454w, https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/duane-hanson-18-245x300.jpeg 245w, https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/duane-hanson-18-768x939.jpeg 768w, https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/duane-hanson-18-838x1024.jpeg 838w\" sizes=\"auto, (min-width: 62.5em) 67vw, 100vw\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-107825\" class=\"wp-caption-text\"><i>Car Dealer<\/i>, 1992.<\/p><\/div>\n<div id=\"attachment_107824\" style=\"width: 1010px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/duane-hanson-17.jpeg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-107824\" class=\"wp-image-107824\" src=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/duane-hanson-17.jpeg\" width=\"1000\" height=\"1124\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/duane-hanson-17.jpeg 2668w, https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/duane-hanson-17-267x300.jpeg 267w, https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/duane-hanson-17-768x864.jpeg 768w, https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/duane-hanson-17-911x1024.jpeg 911w\" sizes=\"auto, (min-width: 62.5em) 67vw, 100vw\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-107824\" class=\"wp-caption-text\"><i>Sunbather<\/i>, 1987.<\/p><\/div>\n<div id=\"attachment_107823\" style=\"width: 1010px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/duane-hanson-16.jpeg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-107823\" class=\"wp-image-107823\" src=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/duane-hanson-16.jpeg\" width=\"1000\" height=\"800\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/duane-hanson-16.jpeg 3000w, https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/duane-hanson-16-300x240.jpeg 300w, https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/duane-hanson-16-768x614.jpeg 768w, https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/duane-hanson-16-1024x819.jpeg 1024w\" sizes=\"auto, (min-width: 62.5em) 67vw, 100vw\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-107823\" class=\"wp-caption-text\"><i>Self Portrait with Model<\/i>, 1979.<\/p><\/div>\n<div id=\"attachment_107822\" style=\"width: 1010px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/duane-hanson-10.jpeg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-107822\" class=\"wp-image-107822\" src=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/duane-hanson-10.jpeg\" width=\"1000\" height=\"1009\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/duane-hanson-10.jpeg 2588w, https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/duane-hanson-10-150x150.jpeg 150w, https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/duane-hanson-10-297x300.jpeg 297w, https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/duane-hanson-10-768x775.jpeg 768w, https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/duane-hanson-10-1015x1024.jpeg 1015w\" sizes=\"auto, (min-width: 62.5em) 67vw, 100vw\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-107822\" class=\"wp-caption-text\"><i>Sunbather<\/i>, 1990.<\/p><\/div>\n<div id=\"attachment_107821\" style=\"width: 1010px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/duane-hanson-7.jpeg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-107821\" class=\"wp-image-107821\" src=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/duane-hanson-7.jpeg\" width=\"1000\" height=\"1229\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/duane-hanson-7.jpeg 2124w, https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/duane-hanson-7-244x300.jpeg 244w, https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/duane-hanson-7-768x944.jpeg 768w, https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/duane-hanson-7-833x1024.jpeg 833w\" sizes=\"auto, (min-width: 62.5em) 67vw, 100vw\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-107821\" class=\"wp-caption-text\"><i>Tourists<\/i>, 1988.<\/p><\/div>\n<p><em>All images \u00a9 Estate of Duane Hanson<\/em><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><em>Dan Piepenbring is the web editor of\u00a0<\/em>The Paris Review.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Hanson used Polaroids to perfect his eerie imitations of tourists and blue-collar workers. The pictures offer an even deeper trip into the uncanny valley.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":38,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2384],"tags":[15177,16328,35,16012,27338,10443,7537,3354,964,27337],"class_list":["post-107819","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-look","tag-americana","tag-aperture","tag-art","tag-duane-hanson","tag-masahiro-mori","tag-photos","tag-pictures","tag-polaroids","tag-sculpture","tag-uncanny-valley"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v25.4 (Yoast SEO v25.4) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Real Polaroids, Fake People: Duane Hanson\u2019s Photos of His Lifelike Sculptures<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Hanson used Polaroids to perfect his eerie imitations of tourists and blue-collar workers. 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