Latest news - Comments

When I was 9 I had a best friend who, after watching too much Child’s Play, convinced me that my collection of porcelain dolls would come to life at night and try to kill me. Instead of spending many a slumber party tending to our Tamagotchis or playing truth or dare, my over reactive and highly imaginative friend and I would spend hours thinking of ways to end this unprecedented war between the toy kingdom and a bunch of primary school children. So dolls, which originally provided a source of joy to little girls, have now turned into something macabre and people are determined to reveal their sinister nature. Most girls, who might still have tubby crates full of Gymnastics Barbie and Bath Time Fun Kelly, would tend to agree that this idea of perfectionism was imprinted upon us at a young age. And who can seriously contest that Bratz are good role models for pre school children? (“Don’t theorise, accessorise!” Yes, certainly, let’s spawn an army of mini Paris-ites.)
Two new exhibitions explore these issues – and the first one’s bound to bring Chucky flashbacks. In her latest exhibition, model-come-photographer Tanya Linney blindfolds her plastic muses, water-boards them, stabs them with scissors and then photographs them. All for your viewing pleasure of course.
Showing her latest exhibition, Counterfeit, at the Mary Place Gallery in Paddington, Linney uses her past modeling experience as inspiration in her art, where she explores exploitation of the female body, the obsession with perfection and the angst ridden period of adolescence. But Tanya’s not the only who’s been raiding Toys 'R' Us. Hannah Scott Stevenson, inspired by Disney Classics and feminist photographer Cindy Sherman, has taken a Lolita-esque approach (and we all know how that story ends). Her sugar sweet images look like something from a catalogue for pajamas, or perhaps a cover illustration for Nabokov’s infamous novel. But that’s all part and parcel of the theme behind Dollface – so entirely delectable and airbrushed to perfection that you barely notice the copy of Hustler amongst the dollies in one of the images. So dolls - good or the purest form of evil? Check out Stevenson’s Dollface at the Somedays Gallery in Surry Hills until June 21^st, and Linney’s Counterfeit at the Mary Place Gallery from this Monday, and make up your own mind.

More details here and here.