On a raised platform amid the crowd at Le Cirque des Rêves, two figures stand posed so they can be seen from every angle. They are entwined in posture but not touching, their faces tilted toward each other with lips held in the instant before (or after) a kiss.

The woman is dressed like a ballerina-bride in white froth laced with black ribbons, wearing striped stockings and tall black button-up boots. Her dark hair is piled in waves and decorated with sprays of white feathers. The man beside her wears an immaculate black pinstriped suit with a crisp white shirt, black tie, and a black bowler hat.

At first they appear utterly motionless, with no blink or breath, prompting a nearby patron to say they cannot be real. But the longer the onlooker watches, the more tiny shifts become visible—minute changes in a hovering hand or a balanced leg—each movement drawing the pair closer in inclination. Despite this constant pull toward one another, they still never make contact.