Concrete Garden

DOllS / living sculptures

 

 

This series of living sculptures on the theme of nature and sustainability was curated for a collective exhibition gathering of artists from different countries.

 

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INTRODUCTION

Dolls have a unique place in everyone's life. 

Dolls are toys, which are by definition to play with. They usually come in the shape of a baby, a girl or a woman but male figures are also present as well as teddy bears and other stuffed toy animals. 

We play house and take care of them as much as they are an important security object during our childhood. When we are young, we rely on them to protect us during the night or keep us company during a long (or short) journey. Parents include them in conversations with their children, as if they are a part of the family, as if they are alive and have a voice meant to be heard. Of course, this phase doesn't last long and soon enough, every child can rely on its own confidence, friends and family. 
 

But the time spent with dolls is unique in the sense that the interaction we have with them is based on our own terms. We deal with them the way we want to. In other words, we could also abuse them, mutilate, insult, destroy them. In this sense, they become the reflection of our social interaction with the rest of the world. A reflection of how we see the world but also how we feel within it.

 

This thought process is the frame for the presented artwork:

Seven dolls made with reused material and within each of them are plants growing. 

 

The reused fabrics include embroidered silk, traditional Japanese patterns, African patterned velvet as well as fishnet fabric used for stockings. The fabric has become the clothes as much as it is the dolls' skin as they are literally shaped in it. Their patterns and textures bring a piece of identity while their shapes symbolize femininity.

Femininity is central to the iconography of the doll. In this series, this femininity is appropriated and integrated with other feminine iconographs such as nature.

Objectifying Nature into the shape of a doll, a human figure, is in a way humanizing it for the time of an exhibition, a time of questioning. 

 
So what if Nature was a doll? Would we play with? 
A more interesting question would be how would each of us interact with her?
Would that be the same way we are interacting with Nature in our reality?

 

As it is an artwork, it is, therefore, the artist's own interpretation of her interaction not only with people but also with nature. 
However, I will explain no further and leave you to your own interpretation.