The Doll House (1999)
Curator: Mark Laliberte
Artists: Magdalen Celestino, Dame Darcy, Francoise Duvivier, Catherine Heard, Melissa Mazar
Location: Artcite Inc (Windsor, ON, Canada)Artists have frequently utilized the doll as "cultural communicator", often as a part of a larger 20th century practice of using ready-mades in gallery settings (Hans Bellmer, Salvador Dali, Ed Keinholz, Marisol). In contemporary settings, the doll has become a recognized conceptual artifact; it is an art-language unto itself with a myriad of formal and conceptual nuances — utilized and transformed in works by Paul McCarthy, Jake and Dinos Chapman, Mike Kelly, Laurie Simmons, Diana Thorneycroft, Sarah Lucas, Tony Oursler and countless others.The Doll House exhibition, curated by Mark Laliberte, examined the doll as both art object and socio-historic communicator, presenting a selection of works which address issues of identity, gender/body politics and high art/low culture. The five artists included in The Doll House (Magdalen Celestino, Dame Darcy, Francoise Duvivier, Catherine Heard, Melissa Mazar) work with doll-as-art-object in individual ways; they transform traditional craft material into highly charged, personal expressions.
Things to Read:
• Of Intimate Knowing essay by John Marriott
• Exoskeleton essay by Mark Laliberte
• Exhibition review: The Windsor Star
• Catalogue reviews: Broken Pencil | Splendidzine | Metro Times