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Dead Dolls
Everyone has a different reaction to dolls. For some they invoke feelings of nostalgia, lost childhood, and innocence, while for others they may produce a feeling of fear called pediophobia. I have specifically chosen dolls pre-dating the 1970s because they have more detailed faces than the smooth, homogenous features of modern dolls. The earlier composite, porcelain, and hard plastic dolls with their painted features, rosebud mouths and blinking eyes are more prone to distress. They crack, chip and peel and some suffer ‘doll disease’, a breakdown of the cheap plastic that was used just after the Second World War. These dolls fragment and fade away as they age unlike their modern counterparts which, when assigned to landfill, will remains the same forever.
Dead Dolls exhibition, London 2010.