AN UNSEEN hand has just thrown what seems to be a sackful of talcum powder over him, but no matter: Man Ray sits patiently for the camera, careful not to sneeze while the shutter clicks. Indignities are heaped upon him - he is required to disguise himself as a frog, donning green flippers and ping-pong ball eyes; to balance precariously on the legs of an overturned table; to submit to being wrapped in a variety of stuffs that range from tinsel to dustbin liner bags to leopardskin-patterned fake fur - but he always seems to take it in good spirit. William Wegman's photographs are the proof.

Man Ray, without doubt Wegman's most famous and multi-talented sitter, is dead now, but in his time he was evidently a model subject: compliant, goodnaturedly accepting of whatever might be asked of or thrown at him, with never a word of complaint. Not that he could talk. Wegman's subject was, of course, Man Ray the dog (1970-1982), not Man Ray the renowned Surrealist photographer (1890-1976).

Wegman, a Californian artist whose oeuvre is currently on display at the ICA, began to work with his ca-nine collaborator in 1970, shortly after purchasing him from a pet shop in Long Beach - at the request of Mrs Wegman - for $ 35. Quite why Wegman named his dog after a famous Surrealist remains unclear, but Man Ray the weimaraner, taking after his namesake, is said to have manifested an early interest in art. Unhappy with his role as studio companion, tied up in a corner, he showed his feelings by howling. Released, he would blunder on to the sets Wegman was constructing for his work as a video artist.

The owner acquiesced in the wishes of the pet, and began to incorporate Man Ray into his art....

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