Number 12: Toys | Autumn 2011 ISSN 1746-8086
Architecture 032 Tecton Words by Gordon O’Connor-Read Images by Jonathan Winstone With thanks to London Zoo 042 Playing House Interview with Wayne Hemingway by Esther Barney
Literature 060 Stick it to the Ram-Man Words by Hannah Morrison 066 Toys Revisited! Words by Eleni Kontesidou
Music 026 Anne Pigalle Interview by Jack Boulton
Art 050 Mariel Clayton Words by João Paulo Nunes 084 The Adventures of Nigel Doll Rose Cooper-Thorne talks to Nigel Grimmer
070 LE CRAYON DU SINGE Words by Phil Sawdon 074 Torrence & Friends Words by Steve Gronert Ellerhoff
Fashion
078 The Role of Toys Within a Consumer Economy and Society Words by Veronica Manlow
016 A New Season Matthew Holroyd talks to RA RA Photography by Jenny & Lee
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Toys Contents
ISSN 1746-8086 www.stimulusrespond.com
Editor in Chief Jack Boulton jack@stimulusrespond.com Editors - Literature Phil Sawdon and Marsha Meskimmon phil@stimulusrespond.com Editor - Fashion Christos Kyriakides christos@stimulusrespond.com Contributing Fashion Editor Matthew Holroyd Editor - Architecture Rose Cooper-Thorne rose@stimulusrespond.com For advertising opportunities, please contact the editor-inchief at the address above. We welcome unsolicited material from our readers. If you would like to make a contribution to future issues then please email the editorial team at the addresses above. Stimulus Respond is published by Jack Boulton. All material is copyright (c) 2011 the respective contributors. All rights reserved. No reproduction without prior consent. The views expressed in the magazine are those of the contributors and are not neccessarily shared by the magazine. The magazine accepts no liability for loss or damage of manuscripts, artwork, photographic prints and transparencies.
For contributors’ contact details, please email the editor in chief at jack@stimulusrespond.com.
Contributors This Issue Cover image by Lutz Matthew Holroyd Jenny & Lee Karin Peterson Kari Landén Jack Boulton Anne Pigalle Gordon O’Connor-Read Jonathan Winstone London Zoo Wayne Hemingway Esther Barney Rose Cooper-Thorne João Paulo Nunes Mariel Clayton Hannah Morrison Charlotte Brown Eleni Kontesidou Phil Sawdon Steve Gronert Ellerhoff Veronica Manlow Nigel Grimmer
Words by Jo達o Paulo Nunes www.worldmanabouttown.com
Mariel Clayton
Previous Spread: Ready, Big Boy? Above: Tennis
Most biographies of Mariel Clayton describe how this self-taught photographer started her creative career and strong interest in dolls after a visit to a Tokyo toy shop. This encounter between Clayton and the world of Japanese miniatures is usually narrated as the moment in time when the artist initiated an appreciation for surreal scenarios that was to influence her work from then on. However, despite the importance of this format and of Japanese culture in her photographs, the deconstruction of the significance of toys as embodiment of innocence ends up being what strikes viewers the most. Clayton’s prolific body of work spreads across numerous collections of complex images where dolls are depicted as aggressors or victims against a number of gruesome settings. Even though her work has been labelled as sexist, empowering for women, or plain portrayals of gratuitous violence, it is difficult to encounter people who have not had a reaction to Clayton’s elaborate tableaus where Barbie or Ken are almost invariably depicted surrounded by blood. When I asked Clayton about the controversy based on gender roles, she was surprised that her work was interpreted as such: “I try not to focus on gender in my work; that aspect ends up being more consequential than anything else. I think my work is considered sexist because it’s mainly Ken bearing the brunt of Barbie’s wrath, which I think comes across as sexist because it’s not a genre generally used in art. However, my motives behind the theme have nothing to do with any sort of commentary on gender roles or sexual stereotyping. Whether Barbie kills males or females is not about the victim’s gender; it’s about the absurdness of the scene itself. And if I do touch on something to do with abuse or violence I’d like to think that I do it in a meaningful way and usually to make a serious point. If there is any underlying theme to be possibly found in my work, it’s mainly a disinterest in gender stereotyping and the continuing belief that each gender has something to prove to the other.” The accusation that Clayton tends to focus on engendering reactions for reaction’s sake is understandable. The underlying premise behind her work seems to be that private feelings and behaviours experienced within concealed personal realms (including suicide attempts, domestic abuse, drug taking, cross dressing, bulimia, and bodily harm) are presented to the viewer as artistic constructs with an intrinsic shock value because they are perceived as gruesome and
Above: She Loves Dinner Parties. The Leftovers Last for Days
secretive acts revealed from a voyeuristic point of view. Nevertheless, the blurred boundaries between the private and the public stimulate the artist’s creative process, as she suggests: “Sometimes I find inspiration for my work in current events, sometimes in song lyrics. Sometimes, even the miniatures themselves can inspire an idea.” However, and very importantly, the highly sadistic and fetishist acts that take place within confined domestic settings contrast with the idea of the doll as emblematic of childhood and innocence. Furthermore, if one is to consider the doll as an educational construct whereby children can mimic, perform and understand public socialising, the fact that Clayton’s toys narrate dystopian realities and disturbed behaviours becomes even more objectionable for adults. It is at this junction of innocent connotations and socially constructed meanings that Clayton’s work, despite seemingly simple, defies expectations to its viewers. In addition, what makes the photographs engrossing on so many levels is the fact that their subjects are dolls that, in spite of being pictured with immovable smiles, have tremendous doses of emotional and physical pain inflicted on them. Suggesting that, unlike the manufactured realm of plastic contentment, Clayton’s world is not one of artificial happiness. By using plastic dolls like Barbie and Ken in constant blissful facial expressions while experiencing or inflicting torture, Clayton’s toy world reveals to adults that reality, at any age of one’s life is ultimately stripped bare of innocence.
Above: Toilet Seat Next Spread: Find the Soap
www.thephotographymarielclayton.com