Artist explores female archetypes in myth through wearable sculptures

A new London exhibit explores female archetypes across mythology and folklore through wearable humanoid sculptures made of carpet.

Opening this week at the Richard Saltoun Gallery, Anna Perach’s A Leap of Faith is part traditional exhibition, part live performance: It features two identical sculptures made to look like Victorian dresses, with one occupied by a human and the other by a robot, inspired by a 19th century Gothic short story.

Part of the experience is to discover which is which, raising broader questions about automation and artificial intelligence: “The terror of automatons or AI is the way they play with your assumptions of humanity,” Perach told The Guardian. “Which in turn makes you question your own humanity.”