These photographers document physical dolls as a substitute for love

American exhibition curator Melissa Harris caused a stir when she showcased the work of photographers Elena Dorfman and Jamie Diamond at the Prada Foundation in Milan.

 

Dolls are among the oldest known toys and have captured the human imagination for thousands of years. In ancient Egypt, puppets have been recorded as early as the 21st century BC, while in Greece, clay dolls can be traced back to at least 200 BC. Of course, dolls are not just children's toys, but objects of spiritual, domestic, and paranormal value, a blurry distinction then and now.

 

These vague distinctions are explored in an exhibition that features "Substitutes for Love" as one of the central themes. Presented at the Prada Foundation in Milan, the exhibition features 42 works by contemporary American photographers Jamie Diamond and Elena Dorfman documenting the lives of many individuals – from lay women artists to physical dolls enthusiasts, and their emotional commitment to physical dolls.

 

But photographers using dolls as props or subjects is nothing new. In the mid-20th century, Boston-based artist Morton Bartlett photographed plaster dolls, and more recently, Laurie Simmons, Elizabeth Jaeger-LeCoultre and Ovid Bistoine included in their work Famous for his human-like portraits.

 

Exhibition curator Melissa Harris told Vogue: "I love Jamie's and Elena's work precisely because their respective visions and work are so human." The work of the two photographers generated interest and saw an opportunity to engage them in a dialogue, "to see how they approached each other, what they had in common, what they had in common in other directions."

 

Exhibits include Diamond's Forever Mother series (2012-2018), an intimate depiction of "reborns" by a group of self-taught female artists who handcraft, collect and interact with hyper-realistic physical dolls. The reasons why these women are so obsessed vary, but mostly revolve around an "empty-nest syndrome." The photos capture the protagonists' soulful moments with their physical dolls, seemingly sympathetically and covertly portrayed. "Working with the team has allowed me to explore the gray area between reality and artifice, where relationships are constructed from inanimate objects," Diamond said.

 

In Nine Months Reborn (2014), the 35-year-old Brooklyn-based artist takes Cindy Sherman's own approach to casting herself as the protagonist. This playful series depicts Diamond in a bob wig carrying a physical doll named Annabelle through various social settings: from restaurant patios to trains and swimming pools. The pieces are inspired by the artist's own childhood and are named after her diaries. They explore the ways in which girls are socialized to construct specific attitudes toward motherhood, while echoing the artist's study of groups.

 

Meanwhile, Los Angeles-based artist Elena Dorfman has focused her attention on dolls as alternatives to romantic and sexual partners. In her series Still Lovers (2001-2004), the 54-year-old artist documents the domestic lives of men and women dedicated to making life-size, human-like dolls. "It was fascinating to create it because I had never seen anything like it before," Dorfman said. "People who like to replace humans with dolls are very appealing to me, then and now."

 

While it is true that the photographs in the exhibition show a profound humanity, there is also a view that they characterize people who already live on the fringes of society. "I'm not interested in hyping up a topic, exploiting anyone, or further marginalizing groups that already feel isolated and judged," Harris explained. Both artists went deep into their groups, earned their trust, and spent a lot of money Time is with the individuals depicted. "

 

At a time when our relationship with artificial intelligence technology has attracted unprecedented attention, Alternatives to Love offers a vision of a human longing that is both timely and timeless. While this two-way conversation appropriately addresses the multifaceted potential of the physical doll as a surrogate for emotional attachment, it doesn't leave much room to fully engage in the ever-present posterity conversation. But then again, if a physical doll is for play, it has to have both ideas and fantasies.




--Reprinted from the public account: Entity doll combat experience