Typically, our posts speak of the business practices of the art world or certain art trends that we feel are likely to have long lasting ramifications on art practices.
However, out of the blue, when we started seeing the internet obsession with Barbie and things associated with her, it got our brain ticking, and we had to weigh in! We heard and read about the rage the new movie, Barbie, had become; the immersive experiences of Barbie doll houses; people dressing up as Barbie and Ken to watch the movie; and the emphasis on the colour pink, with pink-parties!
The Mattel toy really doesn’t need much introduction. Indeed, at the end of the last century (its sounds that old!) and the beginning of this one, it felt like Barbie was something in the past, and a new feminine narrative would be in reinforced through the bight new thing called the internet. We were young then (very green behind the ears!), and this new narrative felt empowering and inevitable.
Yet, twenty years later, here we are, being bombarded by a deluge of pink on the (same!) internet. The movie with an estimated budget of $145 million with another $100 million on marketing is expected to make sure that it shakes up the social media platform to recoup its investment. But what is surprising is how quickly and wholeheartedly it has been adopted by raving fans. Is it our current mindset that things feel so volatile in the socio-politico, economic spheres, that even some mindless pink is the best distraction?
What makes this an even more bewildering space, is that the movie has helped catapult its woman director Greta Gerwig, in the rarefied $1 billion club! So, more power to her! She has managed to turn a symbol of regressive feminine narrative into a billion-dollar money machine.
We started thinking about how artists have, over the years, used seemingly benign toys, to convey a deeper, more macabre message.
In 1994, artist Nancy Burson produced the ‘Aged Barbie’, where she used the programs available at that time to age the toy and make Polaroid spectra photograph of the work. The work, which was on commission for a book, was rejected, since the publishers were horrified about the reality of what was proposed.
Other artists over the decades have also used dolls to re-examine and hold a mirror on the message of feminine stereotypes – the pressure for girls to conform and the deep racial biases it showcases.
We decided to look closer home to see whether artists had used dolls and toys as a part of their visual language. There were a few, but the depiction feels much wider, a more expansive socio-cultural conversation, rather than an obsession with just the physical form.
For example, Jamini Roy deployed a formal use though Bankura toys, horses, and dolls. These portray a playful image, a sense of reconnecting with the pure. On the other hand, Bikash Bhattacharjee’s famous doll series portrays a sinister outlook of society. In all honesty, we find these artworks a bit unnerving!
However, contemporary Indian artist, Anant Joshi’s uses dolls/ toys to make pointed scathing remarks on their cultural role, Interestingly Anant Joshi interacted with toys only as an adult and saw them as a tool for cultural programming of the next generation, a somber acknowledgement of how this might shape future realities. Most often Anant Joshi mutilates the toys and re-imagines them, he began by using discarded or found toys but gradually began making his own toys.
The last few weeks, the bizarre joint phenomena of Oppenheimer-Barbie have overtaken much of the social media space, and in some unintended fashion shone a lens on our distorted perception and realities.
At the end, we provide a disclaimer that we have not actually seen either of these movies and are pretty much reacting to the reaction! We also don’t anticipate seeing the movie, Barbie. We would at some point see Oppenheimer, which has produced its own set of internet outrage, especially in India, with the inclusion of the text from the Krishna’s sermon in the Bhagwat Gita in a sexual setting. But that’s a conversation for another day. And we think it will be a much more interesting, and less disturbing and antediluvian one than what the Barbie one has been.
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