This black-and-white series uses dolls as a vehicle for storytelling, their unnervingly human-like features evoking both familiarity and unease. While many of the dolls are porcelain or life-sized, not all adhere to such lifelike characteristics; the series spans a wide range of styles and forms, inviting viewers to encounter them on varied terms.
The project title An Articulation of Dolls carries multiple layers of meaning. On one level, it refers to the articulated joints of the dolls themselves—the visible seams where heads, arms, and legs attach, points where the illusion of life falters. It also reflects my private taxonomy: just as a grouping of crows is called a murder or lions a pride, I imagined that a grouping of dolls would be called an articulation. This playful invention underscores the tension between order and ambiguity that runs through the work.
The images alternate between distant stagings and close-up compositions, embracing a cinematic approach to storytelling. By juxtaposing sweeping tableaux with intimate studies, I immerse viewers in both the dolls’ environments and the minute details of their forms. These shifting perspectives suggest moments of sadness, alienation, reflection, and longing, while leaving space for viewers to project their own experiences onto the scenes.
The project draws inspiration from Len Kuleshov’s experiments with film editing, which demonstrated how meaning arises from the interaction of sequential shots. Kuleshov’s work highlights our deep need to create relationships and narratives, even when faced with disjointed or ambiguous imagery. Similarly, An Articulation of Dolls invites viewers to bridge the gaps between images, constructing stories and emotions from their own subconscious.
This work also reflects my personal experience as a neurodivergent artist—recently diagnosed as both autistic and ADD. I often feel as if I’m brushing up against the surface of a shared reality that others seem to inhabit more easily. That sense of liminality—of being close to, but not fully within, a collective experience—finds expression in these photographs. The dolls feel achingly lifelike, yet the joints and seams remind us that they are not; they exist in a space between the real and the imagined. Through these images, I aim not merely to document the dolls but to evoke a psychological presence within them—one that lingers in the mind, inviting both voyeurism and empathy. Ultimately, this project is less about the dolls themselves and more about the act of seeing: what we bring to the image, and what the image reveals about us.
