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When I was a kid I had a friend who lived four houses down from
me. Her name was Becky and she was weird. She never wanted to play outside
and she insisted on speaking in a baby voice -- which, as any ten year old
can tell you, is not highly acceptable. Becky's lack of social skills was
at least partly redeemed because she had an extensive doll collection that
was the envy of nearly every red-blooded American girl within a ten mile radius.
Her mother (an equally bizarre character) was a doll collector herself, and
crammed every inch of their tiny home with all all things doll-like. In our
neighborhood, Becky's home was simply known as "The Doll House".
Curator Mark Laliberte has created a book with the same title as the one we
gave to Becky's house of wonder. In it he attempts, with the aid of essayist and artist
John Marriott, to explain our fascination with the doll -- and more
importantly, to provide a glimpse into the 1999 Artcite doll exhibition
and the artists behind the art.
In his essay Of Intimate Knowing, Marriott delves into the
particular styles of each of the five artists whose works were displayed.
All of the contributors to the exhibit were women, and each of them produced
works that were a far cry from the dolls Becky and I played with as kids.
Some are grotesque and disturbing -- most notably the works of Françoise
Duvivier. Her creation, titled Abrakä, could be the star of its own
horror film, with its clawed hands and feet, crazy straw hair and its
generally possessed look. Other artists, like Dame Darcy, take a more
whimsical approach by creating figures that look like distant, sunnier
cousins of Tim Burton's Sally from The Nightmare Before Christmas,
while Magdalen Celestino's Proudflesh hints at voodoo influences.
Marriott also briefly covers the doll's place in various cultures, as well as
the often overlooked psychological links connected to the doll --
specifically the sense of identity that an adult doll-lover obtains from the
little glassy-eyed creatures. Both Marriott and Laliberte offer explanations
of the attraction of the doll. In Laliberte's essay, Exoskeleton,
he hints that the doll's cultural significance is not restricted to the child
or even the typical adult collector. He describes the adults that need to be
the image of the doll of their youth. In other words, the result of a
nation of children obsessed with Barbie is an adult nation obsessed with
perfection and plastic surgery. Perhaps the doll has had more of a profound
effect on society than we'd be inclined to admit.
By combining photos from the exhibit and detailed artist biographies
alongside the two essays, The Doll House offers a thorough look at an
unusual exhibit, and is most certainly the next best thing to being there
yourself. It's a brief but enlightening look at an art that is obviously
much more than simple child's play.
-- Amy Leach
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