AbstractsWomens Studies

dollhouse: An Exhibition of Installation

by Milligen Carol-Anna van




Institution: University of Waterloo
Department:
Year: 2016
Keywords: installation; sculpture; found objects; vintage Airstream trailer; ambivalent sexism; hyperfemininity; artifice; beauty; sexuality; gender as performance; feminism
Posted: 02/05/2017
Record ID: 2067330
Full text PDF: http://hdl.handle.net/10012/10496


Abstract

'dollhouse' is a dreamy, peachy, pretty little private space saturated with sickly sweetness. The installation consists of three rooms built inside the shell of a 1971 Airstream trailer, filled with objects, forms, and colors associated with conventional femininity. As a whole, 'dollhouse' simultaneously asserts the value of this so-called “feminine” affinity for embellishment and color, and questions the ideals, assumptions, and expectations through which women and girls are jointly framed and perceived by society. In order to illuminate some of the theoretical and conceptual underpinnings of the work, this paper explores dollhouse through five interrelated sections: ambivalence, hyperfemininity, artifice, beauty, and sexuality.