What on earth, you might ask, does an art installation about Barbie have to do with spirituality?
Everything, I would answer.
If you've read this column for awhile you've probably seen that my notion of the spiritual is not exactly traditional. I figure, if it inspires, uplifts, empowers, and helps you remember your own inner Divinity, bring it on.
Who cares what it is?
This show does all of the above.
I only managed to check it out yesterday though it's been going since September 10th. Closes in ten days.
I grew up, like many girls (and a few boys), obsessed with Barbie. In fact, I could say an amazing percentage of my tender, formative years in a small town in Pennsylvania were spent dressing, undressing and re-dressing her insanely disproportionate plastic body with every kind of clothing imaginable to be ready for her endless dates with Ken.
(Though as someone who never followed the 'rules' too well, I also sent her on dates with Skipper, pretending they weren't sisters. "Why can she only date Ken?" I can remember asking my mother, genuinely puzzled. She would only roll her eyes.)
And boy, did I develop a love/hate connection to that damn doll.
On the one hand, the Barbie game was mesmerizing. It probably fueled a lifetime love of clothing and costumes that's never abated.
On the other hand, who knows what seeds of teenage eating disorders and body- image craziness was instilled by having this fem-bot as a primary childhood role model? Given that one Barbie is sold every three minutes in the world somewhere, this is quite the thought. Many a feminist Phd thesis has been written on Barbie's destructive affect on young girls' self-image over time.
In my consulting work, I'm constantly amazed how few (white American) women feel love and affection for their bodies exactly as they are. Almost everyone wishes to be thinner, or younger, or different. (Black, Latina, and European women sometimes seem for whatever cultural reasons to have a bit more range on this topic.)
So the act of reclaiming one's body as beautiful and innately perfect is indeed radically and completely spiritual.
Hence, the Altered Barbie show.
I've been making art pieces of the deconstructed dolls for years now. The desire arose spontaneously during my thirties, as if my psyche was finally regurgitating all the childhood Barbi-zation into a new form .
I realized recently a whole array of artists was reclaiming and 'altering' Barbie and having a yearly juried show in San Francisco.
There's even a poignant section where students from SF State's The Safe Place have displayed reconstructed dolls they made. This organization fights campus violence and rape while helping young women with eating disorders and negative body image.
Artistically, politically, and just on the level of pure humor, irreverence, and joie de vivre, the show is amazing. (Be sure to check out the Goddess Kali/Barbie installation).
If you're up for some inspiring, healing insanity, go see it.
The San Francisco Altered Barbie Show, Shotwell 50 Studios, 50 Shotwell, San Francisco, Ca 94103
There's also a multi-media room in the back where they're playing some Barbie-fied movies. Here's a clip from the fabulous short "The Tribe" which links being Jewish with...um...yes...Barbie. Full movie available on I-tunes.
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