Marina Bychkova "Mermaid Song" doll
Artist Marina Bychkova, a dollmakerr who was featured in Craft magazine, has created a new doll, called Mermaid Song.
Tattooed porcelain 13.5” tallLink
Materials: Articulated, porcelain, China paint, silk hair. The porcelain is engraved with a needle while still raw, fired and then china paint is rubbed into the grooves. Accents are added in additional layers.
Previously on Boing Boing:
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Her art is quite ethereal; she uses dolls to represent societal views on beauty and womanhood. I'm always excited when she updates!
@1 Yes! I was talking to my friend about sexuality and simulated simulacra -- that is to say, 'women as dolls' -- because I really liked Miss Bychkova's riff on Snow White. ('Necrophile' is a set of two dolls: one handsome prince, and one bruised sleeping girl.)
I wish I was wealthy enough to buy stuff like this - or skilled enough to make it myself.
Oh, gorgeous. I want one. The gallery is beautiful- I am normally creeped out by porcelain dolls, but I'd make an exception for these works.
Yck. Nt nthr dpctn f nrx s bty. Hw cn nyn pssbly rgrd ths s grgs?
I am no fan of dolls, but these are incredible. Haunting, lovely, disturbing. If I had the disposable cash, I would buy as many of them as I could. The Snow White 'Necrophile' is just fantastic. I'd love to see her do a take on the Swan Princess, with a swanhilde caught between forms; half human, half swan.
I like them a lot.
#5 yuck, not another art-nanny..
Oh. my. god.
Does anyone else see the doll goatse here?!
it just looks like a BJD (ball joined doll) from japan....but they are made of a resin and can be customed any way you want
Not to provoke anyone on the look-out for art nannys, but I am a bit perplexed by this fetishisation of the female body. BB posts often on paintings similar in style to these dolls:
barely dressed big eyed women-children. To me it seems creepy, not beautiful. The fact that it is woman making this art is stranger still.
I wonder, what is the meta message? The artist seems really bitter about her academic arts education, but maybe she just bridled against dissecting her motives as the artist and her place in the larger culture.
With all due respect, #5: You may not agree with the artist's aesthetic, but how about taking the opportunity for what it's worth and posting a fresh argument? One of the greatest advantages of being an artist is the fact that you get to use your own vision and your own preferences. How about making your own art that promotes that which you find beautiful instead of rehashing the same stale, quasi-feminist anorexia argument?
And Marya: I think the most important thing to note about this artist comes in the last paragraph of her bio. She says specifically that she has a strong tendency toward escapism. Her depictions of the female form are not, I imagine, meant to represent some unachievable ideal. Regardless, the female form as fetish harks all the way back to caveman days- see Venus of Willendorf and every other ancient carving in that vein. You need only look at the other cultural influences prevalent on this site and it will be very easy to figure out why tastes tend toward thin, big eyed, and fantastical.
And from my own personal experiences, I can say that it is not uncommon to be bitter when thinking of art school. You enter with very high, dreamy expectations of what will happen while you are there, and it has a tendency to disappoint.
@10: She "fetishizes" the male body, too.
What the Thinker thinks, the Prover proves.
clearly, a madwoman:
"The dolls are more anatomically correct than your average Barbie doll; why was it important to include detailed genitalia?
It’s compulsory. Most of the dolls, both, Fine Art and children’s dolls, though try to imitate human form, are sterilized through a complete removal of sex organs. It’s as if they need to be cleansed of all their sinful humanity. I find this deliberate denial of the essence of life to be ignorant and appalling. I don’t know why there is so much fear and shame associated with human sexuality. Every Barbie needs to have a vagina. Every Ken needs a penis. I think it’s time the dolls leave the realm of tea parties and innocence and address some important issues."
for the very safety of our souls, she must be burned!
What gorgeous work.
Reply to #10 above - BoingBoing often posts art from the "lowbrow" art scene where iconography is drawn from graffiti, skate, and other pop culture worlds. The stylized anime girls that repulse you have become symbolic to many artists in this scene; but not, I think, in quite the same way that mirrors are symbols in modern art - there isn't a consensus.