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One need only open a women’s interest magazine (usually ironically entitled “Health” or “Self”) or watch the tube to learn about quick-fix diets (starving), the season’s must-have fashions (because more is always better, right?), surgical body enhancement, and celebrity endorsements for beauty products to get the impression that we live in a Barbie world—these things, it seems, will make us happier, healthier, and more desirable individuals…but not if the artists at Art 94124 Gallery have anything to say about it. After years of indoctrinating young girls (and society in general) with the notion that the epitome of female existence is to be blonde, fair-skinned, unnaturally thin and silent, the artists of the 6th annual Altered Barbie Show offer a liberating, alternative, and refreshingly subversive outlook on so-called mainstream ideals represented by Barbie dolls. Over forty artists from diverse ethnic backgrounds, genders, ages, experience will exhibit their Barbie-themed work that run the gamut of artistic mediums: painting, drawing, photography, sculpture, mixed media, performance, video, installation, and everything in between. Barbies cast in wax? Check. GLBT Biker Barbies? Check. Garland of Barbie heads? Check. One of the craziest and bravest shows you will see in the city, brace yourself for works that are humorous, disturbing, heartfelt, and honest all at once.
The opening reception is this Friday, August 8 from
Addendum: Yesterday evening I headed over to Art 94124 for the Altered Barbie Show opening and had a blast! I was pleasantly surprised by the welcoming and community-like vibe as the people at the gallery (costumed, of course, in standard-issue barbie doll attire: sherbert-y colored taffetta and sequined gowns) greeted me at the door. Unlike your typical gallery where one piece hangs in subliminal glory on a white, expansive wall, in this show, art covers the walls and even the floor. While this type of presentation is not very conventional--this show is inherently unconventional and the folks at Art 94124 had their kitschy and tongue-in-cheek vibe down pat. As if to further rebel from convention, the decor consisted of shimmery pink fabric and feather boas hung down from the ceiling canopy-style in order to, as a gallery worker informed me, "draw the eye down."
At one point in the evening, I was approached by a blonde, pretty woman in a blue taffetta gown who prostrated herself at my feet and began to caress my gross brown boots that I wear on cold days or when I have to do a lot of walking. The woman breathlessly told me that she loved my boots and said, "let me know if you plan on getting rid of them...I LOVE YOUR SHOES!" Humoring her, I said that I was flattered but that I needed my boots to walk home. She then stood up and held up her cardboard sign that read, "will work for shoes." As it turns out, I was an unwitting participant in bad unkl sista's performance piece entitled Homeless Barbie. If this were an actual homeless person, I think it would top my encounter in the Haight.
For a long time I considered myself a former Barbie devotee turned feminist (As a child, I begged my parents for the Powerwheels Barbie convertible and they eventually broke down bought it for me. My poor parents). This show has made me realize, however, that fascination with Barbie and feminism are not necessarily mutually exclusive--many of the artists, like me, grew up with Barbie and have learned to reconcile and channel their complex thoughts about their childhood with Barbie into creative expression. The altered Barbie show is as much about celebrating pop-culture kitsch as it is about critiquing it.
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