Dolly

Dolly is a memento from my childhood as the offspring of post war immigrants and she marks the earliest days of my creative enquiry.
As a young child, bored on a hot summer day I was instructed to stop pestering and “go play outside”.

Finding my mother’s trowel and fragments of willow pattern china that she had recently uncovered, I decided to dig for buried treasure and to my surprise and delight, unearthed several remnants of previous occupants of our home.

I immediately identified with the pudgy form and bob haircut of the faded china girl clasping her doll and to this day she is among my most treasured possessions.

Fifty odd years later, my studio practice continues to be informed by a process of discovery and I still like to get my hands dirty. I often find myself wondering what I might find if I just metaphorically dig around a bit and so Dolly resurfaces as a seed object that is part of the foundation of my art practice.

A recurring theme in my work is the use of the figure, textures and sensory stimulation to elicit a haptic response and a line of enquiry. A child’s doll is a powerful symbol of the compulsion to touch and hold and, as part of Trove, Dolly represents the nostalgia of childhood, the fascination of surprise, the urge to wonder and the significance of mementos and talismans.