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Author: 
Susan Bozic
Teaser: 
The mythological story of the dating couple (or “dyad” in the jargon of theory) is the subject of Susan Bozic’s The Dating Portfolio, a work of staged photography that took two years to complete. The “man” in the photographs is a mannequin named Carl, and the woman is the artist herself, wearing a wig. “Anything becomes possible when creating staged images,” she says. “The moment I put on the wig I get straight into character and became Carl’s girlfriend.”
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CARL TAKES ME TO THE NICEST PLACES

The art of dating has only recently entered the world of art, where, in the words of Bill
Jeffries, curator of Simon Fraser University Gallery, it constitutes “a sufficiently new
phenomenon that a body of theoretical discourse has yet to develop around it.” Dating
itself, he goes on to say, now has its theorists, one of whom, Natalie Flynn, claims to have
traced the concept of dating as we know it to about 1910. Before then, courtship rituals
were part of chaperoned forms of social mixing such as church outings, picnics, sleigh rides,
hay rides and community dances.


WE BOTH REALLY LOVE THE OCEAN

 
HE SURPRISED ME WITH A ROMANTIC WEEKEND GETAWAY


I CAN’T BELIEVE I FOUND MY MATCH
 
HE’S SO THOUGHTFUL, IT WASN’T EVEN MY BIRTHDAY

The mythological story of the dating couple (or “dyad” in the jargon of theory) is the subject of
Susan Bozic’s The Dating Portfolio, a work of staged photography that took two years to
complete. The “man” in the photographs is a mannequin named Carl, and the woman is the
artist herself, wearing a wig. “Anything becomes possible when creating staged images,” she
says. “The moment I put on the wig I get straight into character and became Carl’s girlfriend.”


HE REMEMBERED OUR ANNIVERSARY

 
WE START THE DAY TOGETHER


FINALLY, SOME TIME TO OURSELVES
 
HE SAID I LOVE YOU, PLEASE MOVE IN WITH ME

The complete series of The Dating Portfolio has been exhibited widely. It opened this
year at the Arbetets Museum in Norrköping, Sweden. The Dating Portfolio consists of
fifteen images. An exhibition catalogue was published jointly in 2008 by Simon Fraser
University Gallery, Rodman Hall Arts Centre at Brock University and Southern Alberta
Art ­Gallery. It is available at ABCartbookscanada.com. Susan Bozic studied photography
and film at Concordia University in Montreal and lives in Vancouver. Several samples
from her portfolios can be viewed at susanbozic.com.

—Mandelbrot

 Click here to read "The Historial Evolution of Dating in America" by Natalie Flynn at oberlin.edu.

Date Published: 
April 29, 2008