January 19, 2006

When one thinks of dolls one instantaneously imagines the cute, curly haired pink cheeked toys one played with in childhood. The other image that comes to mind is the ubiquitous Barbie doll with her hourglass figure, blonde hair and endless array of clothes. But like all things mundane a doll also needs to undergo an image change sometime or the other to keep her from becoming boring.




Annie Naseem has done so by taking the doll from just a humble toy to a work of art. At a recent exhibition at the Alliance she displayed her collection of what were called dolls but in reality were pieces that no child would want to get their hands on and play. These were pieces that deserve to be kept in a display case and shown off to the world, or put up like an expensive painting or artefact. Which in fact they were kept as at the exhibition which allowed one to observe and look at them as if one was walking about in an art exhibit.




An artist by profession Annie has revealed her love of the whimsical and unusual through her work which shows of her artistic talents. Every piece has a story behind it and one that reveals as much about the creator’s imagination and flair for design as it does of the concept behind each doll.






Some of the stories the dolls tell are magical and take one into another dimension such as that told by the doll “Rhea” who brings out in the inner wonders and gives inner satisfaction and peace of mind to all. There are those dolls which can be described as cute such as “ Annska Anderson” made in the image of a figure skater who as the liner notes describe her “has won her third consecutive gold medal in last year’s Winter Olympics”. Or “Stitchadora“ with her sequins and lace who is “thought of as a friend to some of the finest seamstresses and tailors in the world”.


And there is “Jhansi Shyamal” a sari-clad doll whose story is that of a divorced mother of two daughters who runs one of the largest advertising agencies in Sri Lanka. Now that’s a doll worth a second look.




When asked about her reason for choosing dolls as a medium of design, Annie said that coming from Canada she was dazzled by the selection of ribbons and sequins that she came across at shops here. She wanted to use them in her work since she felt there was a lot of potential for making use of such items and therefore realized that dolls could be the perfect medium of doing so.




According to her, the general public response to her dolls has been amazing with a lot of people showing great interest in them. However, she is not too sure whether people will like them enough to actually buy them since here people are not into collecting art other than what is conventionally acceptable such as paintings and sculpture. Abroad though there is great interest in collecting specialty toys such as limited addition teddy bears and dolls which fetch high prices on the market. There are several magazines that cater to the demand for them.


The dolls are not conventional pieces of art but then again art has always been about pushing the limits of what is acceptable and not. And in that tradition these dolls represent another facet and take the idea of art further.

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