From Girl to Doll
Film & Installation, 2022
Inspired by the book Living Doll: the Return of Sexism by Natasha Walter and the paraphrase by George Orwell, From Girl to Doll reflects on the behaviours towards dolls, as playthings, female forms to aspire to become and sexual objects of desire. The work explores the fusion of girl and doll, looking at a hypersexualised world we live in, in which the pressures and desires to become sexually attractive start at a young age.
In the installation, the figures are displayed as decorative, unconscious, and desired objects, exposed, and restricted in a world of patriarchal thought.
Over 50 dolls were sprayed and hand painted, creating designs inspired by bondage outfits. These were hung in a dark room with mirrors, disco lights and fairy lights and a film of selected archival footage, including the first Barbie commercial, playing in the background. The audio was also distorted using reverb and delay techniques. Framed images of dolls posing in sexy and sexual positions hung on the walls.
The installation was on display at LAC's group art exhibition Weight and See at the Undercroft Gallery, Norwich.
'I wanted to create an immersive experience, by introducing inanimate objects that represent the female form into an uncomfortable and eerie world, that challenges our perceptions of female objectification'.
