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Collectors Addiction. Dolls, jars, furniture, photographs. 3m x 3m. 2013
The use of dolls and found materials in the Collector's Addiction and Polyps installations seek to question hierarchies in art and society. The playful and the macabre are juxtaposed, creating ambiguity around gender and identity. The use of a crowed aesthetic and low-grade materials disturb the social order, questioning the relevance of the white-cube aesthetic and the privileging of certain materials in fine arts. The history of women's creativity is explored through featuring elements such as the miniature, amateur and domestic, drawing attention to qualities which have historically relegated female work to craft status.
The fragmented bodies of humans and dolls referenced throughout these installations serve as a metaphor for human alienation and as a resistance to unambiguous ideals of identity and gender. These works have been influenced by the enigmatic, dismembered bodies and the reclaiming of everyday materials in the art of Wangechi Mutu, Annette Messager, Julie Rrap, Hans Bellmer and Thomas Hirschhorn. Theorists such as Linda Nochlin, Luce Irigaray and Julia Kristeva who discuss the body, dismemberment and abjection have also influenced these installations.
Written by Yang-En Hume