If It's Hip, It's Here (Archives): children as dolls

Dolls, in general, freak me out. As they do many people. So do clowns, birds, bones and taxidermy. Now, combine all of those and you have the haunting mixed media sculptures of Brooklyn born, now Venice, California-based artist Stefanie Vega.

Dark, detailed and finely crafted, the sculptures are perfectly suited for a Halloween post. Combining bird skulls, bones, talons and animal legs with porcelain doll heads, doll parts and glass eyes, the gothic, macabre sculptures are often in cages or bondage. Victorian wardrobe elements like leather corsets. petticoats, pocket watches, metal grommets and tophats add a little Steampunk edge to them as well.

Here's a look at some of her sculptures which range in price from $150 for the smallest to $2500+

The Task:

King Krow:

The Prisoner of Folly:

The Brat:

Murder Your Darlings:

The Manipulator:

The Dolly Beast:

La Santa De Las Aves:

Dorian Gray:

The Handless Maiden:

The Pin Slave:

"From the tales that left profound impressions in my earliest childhood memories, I began working not only with unwanted doll parts, but with skull & bones & birds. They spoke to me of wanting to tell the bigger story. The dolls we played with as children were the totems of our dreams. Upon them we laid our hopes & fears...upon them we projected our greatest selves.

I was serenaded by haunting lullabies from long ago. So, drawing on an enormous pool of archetypes & folklore & developing characters based on children's literature & faerie tales, a new hybrid was born. I began to write verse in order to share the tales that influenced the work. This rogue taxidermy with discarded porcelain doll parts and accompanying limerick became a cross-breeding of the unexpected & a departure from the familiar.

Like the resurrection of the forgotten they tell the tales from the soul of the world because they jar the collective memory we have of imagery & symbolism. This collection gives voice to an age old doll tradition that insists on singing its own song." -- Stefanie Vega

The Artist, Stefanie Vega:

images courtesy of Bash Contemporary and others from the artist.

Purchase or see more of her work at Bash Contemporary Gallery
You can also purchase directly from the artist here at her online shop.

Stefanie Vega

above: detail of Giacomo, 2008

In the photographers own words:
How can we forget the scent of dolls? A smell of plastic mixed with vanilla, with an after-taste of Roberts talcum powder, that enchanted you at the first encounter. You felt you could eat them. Their names were Sissy, Corolle, Dennis and Stellina. There they were in the play-room, you pressed a button and like magic some sang, some walked and others did a pee.

They had blue or brown eyes, with those mechanical eyelids that closed when you laid them down. But sometimes they stuck and the eyes stayed open even when they slept. Their hair was curly or straight, red, black, fair or blue. Until the day a jealous little brother cut it all off.

Now, years later, you find the same faces here. They look at you with the same big eyes.

above: Edouardo, 2008

Their names are Sofia, Luigi, Filippo, Melissa, Giordano, Gioia, Lucrezia. They talk, laugh, dance and joke… like children. Because that’s what they are.

above: Sara, 2008

Children we ask too much of, to be perfect, like dolls.

above: Cristina, 2008

Who speak at least two languages correctly, go to lessons in riding, dancing, swimming, judo, singing, fencing and athletics.

above: Julia, 2008

Children who behave themselves at the table, who know when to speak and when not to. And who don’t whine too much.

above: Lorenzo, 2008

Children who have become sons and daughters of perfection, pretense and image, manipulated by the media and the social context and who are inevitably losing their naturalness.

above: Liera, 2006

This is The Puppet Show, the new artistic project by the photographers Winkler+Noah: 30 portraits of children from two to eight years old, taken very naturally and transformed into dolls by a subtle play of retouching.

above: detail of Beatrice, 2006

The photo of Beatrice, the blonde child whose portrait is the symbol of the show, has already received two of the most important awards on the international photographic scene: American Photography of New York and publication in the volume “200 Best Photographers Worldwide” by Luerzers Archive.

The proceeds of the works displayed will go as charity to Epsilon, the non-profit organization which has always dedicated itself to the defense of children in the most distressed areas of the world.

The project will be transformed into a travelling show in Europe, collected into a book with all the photos, the credits and the stories of the protagonists. An exhibit which becomes a starting point for reflection, sociological research and introspection, to better understand ourselves and the world around us. And to understand that the best present we can give to children is to let them be children.

Here are all 30 images from the project. Please click on each photo to enlarge: