Monday, September 5, 2011

Who I am and What I do...

I am an artist, an artist with a goal to capture and express the beauty of all things around me through photography. What fascinates and intrigues me the most are things deemed 'uncanny', especially things that bear an uncanny resemblance to humans. Things that literally trick the ordinary person to believe that the item is a real human being at first glance. These things are dolls, specifically asian ball jointed dolls. Consider them as an adult and more sophisticated version of a child's 'Barbie doll'.

  Make up and photography by me. 
Owner: "RacerGT"

These dolls are much more lifelike and detailed. Such is their nature due to their high level of customizability. Because they are so lifelike, they bear an uncanny resemblance to human beings. This usually carries a stigma. A stigma where they are automatically deemed as 'creepy', 'scary', and just plain 'weird'. And my question is why? Why are they called such? Why do they instill such fear into people? I want to understand where along the path to adulthood did a doll become creepy.

As children, dolls are an everyday asset to a girl's toy chest (action figures for boys), they are objects that bring us countless hours of fun. I know my childhood was like that. I would run my doll across my entire house, taking her on a journey through my imagination, dress her, pose her, cut her hair,  give her a bath, and last but not least, love her.

So how did we lose all these memories of fun with our dolls to the point where all we have left as adults are 'That thing is so creepy'? To discover the answer, I will utilize photography to capture these dolls in all aspects of life and take them away from the negativity generated.
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2 comments:

  1. martynaSeptember 11, 2011 at 6:05 AM

    Hello Tram,

    Thank you for sharing your interests and sources of inspiration with us!

    It's great that you already have a concrete project that you are planning to explore:
    The uncanny resemblance between dolls and humans.

    It's a great project – as you pointed out dolls impacted many early moments of our childhood – and, I believe that there is also a broader political context that can be investigated. You pointed out that girls play with dolls and boys play with action figures.

    Do you think that these early childhood companions influence the way girls and and boys act as they grew up? And if so, in what ways do toys influence our behavior as adults?

    Perhaps you could combine your aesthetic exploration of the subject with other questions.

    I've been following a media project called Feminist Frequency for a long time, it comments on pop culture in mainstream media from a feminist / queer perspective. There are two short clips: Toy Ads and Learning Gender and Fembot, Advertising and Male Phantasy – check it out. Perhaps it's interesting for your project.

    Here are the links:
    http://www.feministfrequency.com/
    http://www.feministfrequency.com/2010/11/toy-ads-and-learning-gender/
    http://www.feministfrequency.com/2010/04/mad-world-fembots-advertising-and-male-fantasy/

    I hope that you will find creative ways to insert your interests in the media projects we will be working on.

    Best,
    Martyna

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  2. edSeptember 12, 2011 at 11:04 AM

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