Standing just under two metres high, Seton’s manikin is a meticulously carved marble replica of a ballistic gel target: a scientifically average and non-gendered mannequin designed for the gun practice of the Australian Special Forces Snipers. By smoothing and flattening anatomical curves, the delicately veined surface becomes both subtly animated yet beguiling, whilst Seton’s attention to selected details such as the seaming and the merest suggestions of corporeal indentations in the small of the back and chest, breathes life into this faceless effigy.

Alex Seton’s artistic practice incorporates sculpture, photography, video and installation to examine problematic ideas and concepts and give them form. Always carefully considered, Seton’s artworks playfully sit at the junction of an idea, forcing a choice in the viewer as a litmus test of their own disposition.

Best known for marble carving, Seton flouts and expands upon the traditions of sculpture, exploring the materiality of marble with works that use the chemistry and properties of marble as poetic device. This work in Bianca Carrara marble is one of a series of similar mannequins carved in a variety of types of stone.

Seton’s work is held in numerous collections including the National Gallery of Australia; Artbank; Art Gallery of South Australia; Australian War Memorial; Newcastle Art Gallery; Bendigo Art Gallery; the Danish Royal Art Collection, Copenhagen; HBO Collection, New York; University of Queensland Art Museum; Queensland University of Technology; Albury Regional Gallery; the Patrick Corrigan Collection, Sydney; and the Art Gallery of New South Wales Society; as well as numerous private collections internationally.