UNCANNY LIFE: OBJECTS OF BEING
JAN DONALDSON
16 Aug to 7 Sep 2019
The ‘Uncanny Life’: Objects of Being exhibition explores the doll/puppet as a cultural icon and artefact. Including contemporary jewellery and object works, I investigate the doll as not just a plaything, but as an object intimately linked to identity.
My fascination with the uncanny includes experimentation with puppetry and masks and forms an important aspect of the project. These theatrical elements, which include the ability to express identity through movement, allow for the exploration of larger narratives, alluding to the drama and folly of human existence.
Some of the works also reference folk tales and nursery rhymes. I seek to recover a more sensual, childlike world, with all its attendant bafflement, shock, raw desire, clumsiness, illusion and disenchantment.
Individually and collectively the dolls reveal the intimate and the personal. They come together as a collection of artefacts that are at once ‘canny’ and ‘uncanny’ in their creation; objects to show our existence - a trace of self.