Exhibition: Hello Dolly

I defy anyone who visits Jaffa Museum between now and March 25 to come out with an unchanged perspective on dolls.

By BARRY DAVIS
Doll by Lior Kesem Hamama (photo credit: VICTOR BEZRUKOV)
Doll by Lior Kesem Hamama
(photo credit: VICTOR BEZRUKOV)
Nineteenth-century English novelist Samuel Butler once observed that “prayers are to men as dolls are to children. They are not without use and comfort, but it is not easy to take them seriously.”
Unwholesome Victorian family mores notwithstanding, Butler clearly recognized the benefits to be had from playing with the figurine toys. However, on entering the display area on the upper floor of the Jaffa Museum, one immediately gets the feeling that the writer might have changed his appreciation tack had he been around to see the Dolls Art exhibition currently in progress there.
Doll by Kylie Dexter. (Credit: Kylie Dexter)
Doll by Kylie Dexter. (Credit: Kylie Dexter)
If your idea of a doll runs along the lines of a Barbie product or, possibly, something a little less utopian- oriented, you’ll be thinking again after even the briefest of glimpses of the museum layout. There are dolls there of practically every substance, hue and texture going. You name the material, and you’ll probably find it somewhere in Dolls Art. There are fabric items, dolls made of pottery, wood, metal, porcelain, wax and even masking tape.
The exhibition has become something of a fixture on the local cultural scene, with Dolls Art running for the third year in succession. Curator Limor Margulis was not only keen to introduce the public to a wide array of techniques and artistic philosophies; she also takes us on a whirlwind global tour.
“The doll is something of an ambassador. There are works here by artists from all over the world,” she says, adding that she not only wants us to enjoy what we see, she’d like us to take the exhibits seriously, as bona fide works of art.
“These are not dolls to be played with,” she notes, following my remark that every child keeps themselves occupied, at least for a while, with some configuration of doll.
“One of the motives behind this exhibition is to show people that dolls are not just playthings. We say that a doll is a figurative work of art, and some of the artists even make their living from this field.”
Margulis backs her assertion with a concrete market fact.
“There are collectors of dolls all over the world, with many of the top works coming from Russia. I think Russia is the most developed country in the world in this field,” continues the curator. “There are, of course, a lot of collectors in Europe and the United States.”
Judging by the show at the museum, there is plenty to be collected, and an abundance of design and creation ideas, as well as technical skills, have been invested in the works. Dolls are clearly not just for kids.
There is a lot to be examined, appreciated and enjoyed at the museum.
Art by Irena Aizen. (Credit: Irena Aizen)
Art by Irena Aizen. (Credit: Irena Aizen)
It seems we have plenty to offer the field, too. Take, for example, the contribution by Neta Amir. Amir is a fashion design graduate from Shenkar College of Engineering, Design and Art, in Ramat Gan, and has spent quite a few years honing her skills in textile crafts and handmade creation.
Her penchant for fabric doll-making eddied out into adjacent creative fields and she began to design shoes and bags for real human beings, too. The fashion feel comes across in her figurine works and she has exhibited in the US, the Netherlands and Belgium, winning several awards en route. One of Amir’s principal sources of inspiration is the Topsy-Turvy Doll, which was popular in the first half of the 20th century in the US. It was a double-ended American cloth toy, typically featuring two opposing characters, often fusing the figure of a white girl with a black girl, joined at the hips. One of Amir’s exhibits in Jaffa gives the appearance of a ragged, off-the-cuff item, cobbled together as an afterthought when, in fact, it is the product of a carefully planned line of design attack. The end product is an endearing character that just begs to be held close. Naturally, that is not encouraged by the curator.
The aforementioned Russian heritage and expertise in the field of doll making comes across in the delightful and inventive work of puppeteer, painter and illustrator Viktoria Perelman. Born and raised in Moscow, Perelman made in aliya in 1990 and quickly began complementing her innate feel for the art form with formal education in design and interior architecture.
She subsequently added graphic design, print and Web design to her skill portfolio.
True to her expansive education, Perelman’s creations incorporate all kinds of materials, such as textiles and sculpting clay.
“Viktoria is inspired by childhood experiences familiar to us all,” says Margulis, “as each piece carries a wide range of sweet memories – a world of innocence, warmth, caress and love.”
That cozy ambiance runs across many of the items on display at the museum, but there is a lot more to Dolls Art. As you progress through the well-lit exhibition space, you begin to reevaluate your concept of dolls. There are works that immediately convey a sense of well-rooted artisanship, but there are plenty that make you take a second look, and thought.
“The exhibition reveals two layers of the creative process – the outer and the inner,” Margulis explains.
Doll by Dana Gur-Zeev. (Credit: Dana Gur-Zeev)
Doll by Dana Gur-Zeev. (Credit: Dana Gur-Zeev)
“The outer layer deals with materials and techniques used. The inner layer is about the inner discourse of the artist, his thoughts and interests, as well as his sources of inspiration, such as life adventures, everyday stories, childhood memories, family stories, cultures and periods of history, literature and poetry, philosophy, symbols, mythologies and more.”
Margulis wants to connect with the child within us, but also to give the exhibits – and the field in general – their due.
“The word ‘doll’ creates a direct association with the concept of a ‘toy,’ which raises the question of what is a work of figurative art and what is a toy,” she notes.
“One of the main goals of this exhibition is to illustrate the difference between a toy and the doll as an object of figurative art that was not originally created as children’s toy.”
There is more in the way of earnest and inventive artistic offerings from the Haifa-based Bayit 9 group, which specializes in woodcarving and fringe theater studies and art. The two fields share a common denominator of puppets and dolls, and the curriculum takes in puppeteering. The exhibition features a series of Bayit 9 wood works that feed off the puppeteering traditions of Prague and primarily use tilia wood.
Many of the exhibits are highly impressive, from a pure artistic standpoint, and there are others that, while intricately crafted, also impart a sense of insouciance and childhood fun. The Dolldrums works by Kylie Dexter certainly pertain to the latter. The Australia-based artist comically describes her line as “grown-up dolls for strange boys and creepy girls.”
She also presents herself as “an internationally exhibited self-taught felt sculpture artist,” who creates works that “lean towards unsettling but endearing puppet-type art dolls.”
The creative process sounds like great fun, and the end products duly reflect that.
“The dolls are made from 100% wool roving, using a technique called needle felting,” explains Dexter.
“You begin with a ball of fluffy wool, then jab a felting needle into the wool thousands of times until it firms up and shapes into the object you are forming. In my case, a head, body and arms. The eyes are polyglass and acrylic painted, and customers can choose either glass eyes or acrylic eyes. The clothes are all handmade and hand sewn.” Sounds good, and looks good.
The same can be said for all the works in Dolls Art.
I defy anyone who visits Jaffa Museum between now and March 25 to come out with an unchanged perspective on dolls.
For more information: www.jaffamuseum.co.il