The Soft Bodies of Memory - KALTBLUT Magazine

"Their surfaces were often a single, uniform colour, frequently black, without texture, pores, or visible anatomy beyond the essential outline of a body. They did not aim to imitate life. They suggested it. What fascinated Moussally was their strange elegance. The way their softness contradicted their function. The way they could be bent, folded, seated, or twisted into almost any pose. They were bodies without resistance. Bodies that accepted every gesture imposed on them."

"They were often stylised in the simplest ways. A pair of sunglasses placed where eyes might be. A scarf wrapped around the head or just a wig. Earrings pinned directly into the foam. With only these minimal additions, the mannequins acquired a human presence even though their faces remained blank and without features. Identity was not fixed. It was assembled, improvised, and layered. This physical malleability became an early lesson in how bodies can be shaped by context, by projection, by desire, and by gaze."

"For Hadi, this process of dressing, altering, and reconfiguring these figures planted the seeds for Salma Zahore as a character who is never entirely stable, never fully resolved. Salma is not a fixed persona but a surface in motion. A figure that absorbs cultural codes, visual tropes, and emotional projections. Like the mannequins, Salma Zahore exists somewhere between object and subject, between display and agency. She is stylised, composed, and at times deliberately artificial."

Hadi Moussally remembers foam mannequins from his father's shop that were uniform, often black, and lacking texture or visible anatomy, suggesting rather than imitating life. Their soft, bendable foam allowed them to be posed without resistance, creating bodies that accepted any gesture. Minimal additions like sunglasses, scarves, wigs, or earrings conferred human presence while faces remained blank, making identity assembled and improvised. These mannequins taught that bodies are shaped by context, projection, desire, and gaze. Salma Zahore emerged from that lesson as a character who is unstable, stylized, and a surface in motion, absorbing cultural codes and emotional projections.

Read at KALTBLUT Magazine