Christine Giancola

Warning: Choking Hazard (2020)
digital print
20 x 30 in.
$500

As a feminist I have always been drawn to working with female icons including mannequins. As feminine ideals, they are mysterious and seductive, passive and distorted, sexualized and mute all at once. Over the past several years I began noticing how Barbie’s were arranged on thrift store toy shelves and wondered who placed them there, often in sexual poses. Over the course of an hour or more I would return to find that some had appeared to be in relationships.

During graduate school I did research on the Barbie and after many hours of observation in a Barbie toy store, noticed that the majority of people visiting, interacting and purchasing Barbie’s were men. Recently, while in line at Goodwill a man in front of me was dangling three Barbies and a Ken doll. I can only imagine the story they could tell.

© Christine Giancola