Laurie J. Blakeslee

Charm and Betrayal
inkjet print
20 x 30 in.

From slightly damaged toys—lost and found— evolve memories of a child’s hours spent in the safety of their make-believe world. Performing for the camera, human-like figures are cast as surrogates in an adult fiction. Pouty lips and eyes droop into a melancholic expression, a mood that is amplified by the uneasiness of an ambiguous space.

A once joyful gesture now implies a falseness in an environment of soft focus. A rough plastic seam along a bent arm interrupts the narrative with evidence of its manufactured birth. In a miniature theater, figures pose as societal archetypes and link us to a “real” world of assumptions and stereotypes.

© Laurie J. Blakeslee