One of the oldest known toys, the doll has captivated the human imagination for millenia. In ancient Egypt, examples of wooden paddle dolls have been documented from as early as the 21st century BC, while in Greece, articulated clay dolls date back to at least 200 BC. Of course, dolls weren’t always just children’s playthings, but were also objects bearing spiritual, familial and supernatural value — a blurry distinction, then and now.
The negotiation of these boundaries is one of the central themes of the exhibition Surrogati. Un amore ideale, which recently opened at Milan’s Fondazione Prada. Comprising a selection of 42 works by contemporary, American photographers Jamie Diamond and Elena Dorfman, the show documents the lives of a number of individuals — from outsider female artists to sex-doll lovers — and their emotional investment in their synthetic counterparts.
But photographers using dolls as props or subjects is nothing new. Morton Bartlett photographed plaster dolls from as early as the mid-twentieth century, while more recently, Laurie Simmons, Elizabeth Jaeger and Arvida Byström (more on that in SLEEK issue 61) have been noted for the inclusion of human-like effigies into their work.
“What I love about Jamie and Elena’s work is precisely the humanity of their respective visions and projects,” exhibition curator Melissa Harris told SLEEK. Also an editor-at-large at the Aperture Foundation, Harris developed an interest in both photographers’ work and saw an opportunity to place them in conversation, to “see how they brush up against each other, what common ground they share, where they radiate in other directions.”
Jamie Diamond 4.12.12 , 2012 da/from “I Promise to be a Good Mother” Courtesy of the artist
The exhibition includes Diamond’s series Forever Mothers (2012-2018), an intimate portrayal of the Reborners — a group of self-taught female artists who hand-make, collect and interact with hyper-realistic dolls. The reasons behind these women’s obsession vary, but largely revolve around a kind of empty-nest syndrome. The photographs capture the protagonists in affectionate moments with their silicone-based beloveds in what appears as a compassionate yet voyeuristic depiction. “Working with the community allowed me to explore the grey area between reality and artifice where relationships are constructed with inanimate objects,” said Diamond.
In Nine Months Reborning (2014), the 35-year old Brooklyn-based artist embraces an autofictional approach à la Cindy Sherman, staging herself as the central protagonist. The playful series depicts Diamond in a bobbed wig, carrying a hyper-realistic doll named Anabelle across various social environments — from a restaurant’s terrace to a train and a swimming pool. The works were inspired by the artist’s own childhood and named after the diary she kept back hen. They navigate the ways in which girls are socialised to construct certain attitudes towards motherhood, while echoing the artist’s research around the Reborners community.
Elena Dorfman Galatea 4, 2002 da/from “Still Lovers” Courtesy of the artist
Meanwhile, Los Angeles-based artist Elena Dorfman has focused her attention on dolls as substitutes for romantic and sexual companionship. In her series Still Lovers (2001-2004), the 54-year artist documented the domestic lives of men and women who devote themselves to lifesize, anatomically realistic sex dolls. “It was fascinating to create because I had never seen anything like it before. No one had,” Dorfman told us. “People who love dolls as replacement human beings was very compelling to me — both then and now.”
While the images in the show certainly display a profound sense of humanity, there is an argument to be made that they objectify individuals who already live in the margin of society. “I am not interested in sensationalising a subject, exploiting anyone, or further marginalising communities who already feel isolated and judged,” Harris explained. “Both artists went deep into their communities, earned the trust of their subjects, and spent significant time with the individuals depicted.”
Elena Dorfman Rebecca 1, 2001 da/from “Still Lovers” Courtesy of the artist
At a time when our relationship with AI technologies raises unprecedented preoccupations, Surrogati. Un amore ideale offers a vision of human longing that is at once timely and timeless. And while this two-way format suitably addresses the multi-faceted potential of the doll as a substitute for emotional attachment, it doesn’t leave much room to fully engage with the ever-so-present posthuman discourse. But then again, if dolls are for playing, it should be with fantasies as much as with ideas.
